Protégé Guide (MKA Mentoring Program)
Who is a Protégé?
Protégé is a young person or student who wants to develop his potential with the help of a more experienced person called mentor who will act as protégé's guide, a trusted counselor and a caring friend.
Who should be a Protégé?
Someone who is unsure of your career choice(s)?
Someone who wants to learn more about a particular career or profession?
Someone who wants to be a Doctor, Engineer, Lawyer, IT or Finance professional and need to talk to someone who can guide him through the realities of the profession?
Someone who wants to start a business and needs advice?
Someone who needs an experienced person to be a sounding board for your ideas?
How to volunteer as a protégé?
If you think you are someone who wants to be a protégé, you need to provide some basic information including your contact and current schooling status to the local or regional lead of the mentoring program. Your regional lead will then find a suitable mentor for you and will ask the mentor to contact you. The mentor will initiate the contact with you and will provide guidance to you for the next few months with frequent follow-ups and regular discussions.
Expectations of Protégés
The MKA Mentoring Program provides young Khuddam and Attal with a unique opportunity to develop a relationship with and seek guidance from successful experienced ahmadi role models. A mentor can help you create your own vision for the future and encourage you to develop to your fullest potential. As a student you can gain insight about career options from your mentor. By passing on hard-earned knowledge, mentors can help answer lot of your questions about career and life. All mentors have a same goal in common - to help your people achieve their potential and discover their strengths. Although, mentoring could help protégé in a variety of ways, following are some examples stating the scope of mentor-protégé relationship.
Educational or academic mentoring helps protégé improve overall academic achievement.
Career mentoring helps protégés develop the necessary skills to enter or continue on a career path.
Personal development mentoring supports protégé during times of personal or social stress and provides guidance for decision making.
As a Protégé You Should
Talk to your mentor about what you hope to gain from the experience.
Be open in your communications. Share your aspirations, needs and desires.
Be respectful of the mentor's time and contact him at mutually agreed upon schedule.
Be receptive to feedback and advice. Use feedback to identify your strengths and weaknesses, this will help you create plans to address areas that need improvement.
Be patient and positive in the relationship.
See solutions and opportunities.
Example of a Model Mentor-Protégé relationship - It really happened!
Ahmad had developed a mentoring relationship with a young Khadim Atif pursuing an under-graduate double major in computer sciences and economics. Ahmad himself had an MBA and worked at a hi-tech firm as a product manager. When Atif was a sophomore in college, he consulted with Ahmad about which courses to take. Ahmad not only helped him evaluate several courses and choose two of them, he also helped Atif apply for internship at another hi-tech company that summer where he had some professional contacts. Atif was able to intern at that company, and after finishing his degree, ended up working at the same company as a technical marketing engineer. They still stay in touch and discuss various career milestones that Ahmad has helped identify for Atif. Please note that it is a real story with changed names.
To download this information as word document click here
MKA USA Discussion Forums! 
