History
In 2005, CyberMentor was founded by Prof. Dr. Heidrun Stöger and Prof. Dr. Dr. Albert Ziegler. Since then, CyberMentor has inspired more than 9,200 mentoring pairs for STEM (see graphic "Development of the number of participants"). The idea to introduce an online mentoring program in Germany arose during a visit to the University of Alberta in Canada. Colleagues there had initiated the e-mail-based mentoring program "Cybermentor". Based on the promising approach of promoting girls through mentoring, an application was drafted for a comparable program in Germany. While the Canadian project relied exclusively on e-mail communication between the mentoring pairs, the German counterpart additionally included an online platform, offline meetings, and training for female mentors. In the meantime, CyberMentor has gone through several funding phases.
From 2005 to 2007, the then existing pilot project was funded by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Food and Rural Affairs. When the program went online in 2005 after a preparatory phase, it exceeded its original goals: Instead of the planned 200 mentoring couples, a total of 359 couples participated in the program during its first two years. In 2006, the University of Ulm acknowledged the development of CyberMentor with the Women's Advancement Award. Despite these successes, no funding was approved for the third year. In 2008, CyberMentor was therefore continued on a volunteer basis and was able to accommodate 256 mentoring pairs in the third round.
The 2nd funding phase of the program began at the end of 2008 with nationwide funding. CyberMentor was included in the National Pact for Women in STEM Professions and funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and by the European Social Fund. The CyberMentor team grew and - with Prof. Dr Heidrun Stöger’s acceptance of a chair at the University of Regensburg – the program was now also organized from this location. With the funding from the BMBF, extensive accompanying research was introduced in addition to a Germany-wide expansion, and the number of participants was set at 800 female students and 800 female mentors per round. In 2011, the Ulm team moved to the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, as Prof. Dr Dr. Albert Ziegler took over the Chair of Educational Psychology there. To promote the institutionalization of the program and sponsorship by the business community, the CyberMentor advisory board was founded in the same year. Due to the proven success of CyberMentor (cf. section "Research at CyberMentor"), a second financial support by the Federal Ministry was approved starting in 2012 with the condition to make the program permanent. At the same time, large companies such as Siemens AG, Daimler AG, IBM Germany, SAP AG, Krones AG and Maschinenfabrik Reinhausen GmbH began to get involved as sponsors for CyberMentor. Like the pilot phase, the first BMBF funding phase was very successful: A total of 3,183 mentoring pairs participated over the six years.
Initial evaluation results showed that active participants with a strong network on the online platform benefited more from CyberMentor. Taking account of these results, the community concept was introduced for the 2012 round. A community is composed of two mentoring pairs (two mentors and two students) who share the same STEM interests and can work on projects together. To support the activities within the communities, the CyberMentor year was divided into four mentoring phases and a selection of STEM projects was created. STEM wikis, which all participants can access and edit independently, were set up to document the project work.
Since 2014, CyberMentor has been funded entirely by ministries, foundations, and sponsorships and donations. At this time an important step for CyberMentor was also a comprehensive redesign of the online platform and website.
Various other sponsors such as the employers' association Gesamtmetall, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V. and ZF Friedrichshafen AG supported the project for a long time. We can particularly highlight Daimler AG, which continues to co-finance our work. Since 2018, CyberMentor Plus has been funded by the Bavarian State Ministry for Education and Cultural Affairs and implemented at selected schools throughout Germany as part of the "Leistung macht Schule" initiative funded by the federal and state governments. Since 2019, the Deutsche Telekom Foundation has supported the cooperation between CyberMentor and the Junior Engineer Academy (JIA) – jointly, providing special offers for participating mentees and female students at the JIA. Since 2020, our supporters have also included the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Economics, Labor and Tourism and the Vector Foundation. As part of this new funding, CyberMentor cooperations are being established with regional projects in Baden-Württemberg specifically.
In total, the CyberMentor program has so far allowed over 9,200 mentoring pairs the opportunity to share their STEM interests with each other and to jointly develop perspectives for the future of their mentees in the STEM field. At the same time, the CyberMentor team is continuously working on enabling a large number of girls to participate in the future.
From 2005 to 2007, the then existing pilot project was funded by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Food and Rural Affairs. When the program went online in 2005 after a preparatory phase, it exceeded its original goals: Instead of the planned 200 mentoring couples, a total of 359 couples participated in the program during its first two years. In 2006, the University of Ulm acknowledged the development of CyberMentor with the Women's Advancement Award. Despite these successes, no funding was approved for the third year. In 2008, CyberMentor was therefore continued on a volunteer basis and was able to accommodate 256 mentoring pairs in the third round.
The 2nd funding phase of the program began at the end of 2008 with nationwide funding. CyberMentor was included in the National Pact for Women in STEM Professions and funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and by the European Social Fund. The CyberMentor team grew and - with Prof. Dr Heidrun Stöger’s acceptance of a chair at the University of Regensburg – the program was now also organized from this location. With the funding from the BMBF, extensive accompanying research was introduced in addition to a Germany-wide expansion, and the number of participants was set at 800 female students and 800 female mentors per round. In 2011, the Ulm team moved to the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, as Prof. Dr Dr. Albert Ziegler took over the Chair of Educational Psychology there. To promote the institutionalization of the program and sponsorship by the business community, the CyberMentor advisory board was founded in the same year. Due to the proven success of CyberMentor (cf. section "Research at CyberMentor"), a second financial support by the Federal Ministry was approved starting in 2012 with the condition to make the program permanent. At the same time, large companies such as Siemens AG, Daimler AG, IBM Germany, SAP AG, Krones AG and Maschinenfabrik Reinhausen GmbH began to get involved as sponsors for CyberMentor. Like the pilot phase, the first BMBF funding phase was very successful: A total of 3,183 mentoring pairs participated over the six years.
Initial evaluation results showed that active participants with a strong network on the online platform benefited more from CyberMentor. Taking account of these results, the community concept was introduced for the 2012 round. A community is composed of two mentoring pairs (two mentors and two students) who share the same STEM interests and can work on projects together. To support the activities within the communities, the CyberMentor year was divided into four mentoring phases and a selection of STEM projects was created. STEM wikis, which all participants can access and edit independently, were set up to document the project work.
Since 2014, CyberMentor has been funded entirely by ministries, foundations, and sponsorships and donations. At this time an important step for CyberMentor was also a comprehensive redesign of the online platform and website.
Various other sponsors such as the employers' association Gesamtmetall, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V. and ZF Friedrichshafen AG supported the project for a long time. We can particularly highlight Daimler AG, which continues to co-finance our work. Since 2018, CyberMentor Plus has been funded by the Bavarian State Ministry for Education and Cultural Affairs and implemented at selected schools throughout Germany as part of the "Leistung macht Schule" initiative funded by the federal and state governments. Since 2019, the Deutsche Telekom Foundation has supported the cooperation between CyberMentor and the Junior Engineer Academy (JIA) – jointly, providing special offers for participating mentees and female students at the JIA. Since 2020, our supporters have also included the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Economics, Labor and Tourism and the Vector Foundation. As part of this new funding, CyberMentor cooperations are being established with regional projects in Baden-Württemberg specifically.
In total, the CyberMentor program has so far allowed over 9,200 mentoring pairs the opportunity to share their STEM interests with each other and to jointly develop perspectives for the future of their mentees in the STEM field. At the same time, the CyberMentor team is continuously working on enabling a large number of girls to participate in the future.