SGAC Mentoring Committee

Congratulations To The Best Mentor Award (Spring 2023) Winner: Elisabetta Lamboglia

Best Mentor Award Spring 2023

Best Mentor Award

Space Generation Advisory Council’s Mentoring Program connects mentees and mentors in the space sector to foster and support the development of a robust space sector for the long-term. The Mentoring Program runs two sessions yearly, one in Spring and another in Fall. Overall, the program has mentored ~500 young professionals and university students.

To recognize the efforts of our mentors the organization is launching a “Best Mentor Award” for each session to acknowledge outstanding mentors who have put their best foot forward to develop the next space generation. Mentors are nominated by their mentees, before being screened by a jury that comprises the SGAC Executive Director, Mentoring Co-Lead and members of the Mentoring Committee.

SGAC Mentors are:

  • Those who are confirmed applicants to be a mentor for that particular session of the Mentoring Program (e.g. you can only be nominated for Fall 2022 awards if you have received confirmation to be a mentor for that session, even if you have previously been confirmed as a mentor for prior sessions).
  • Those who are active mentors participating in that particular session (e.g. Fall 2022 session is from October 2022 – Jan 2023), who have not been asked to leave the program due to absenteeism, misconduct, or any other reason. Active mentors also do not include mentors who have to drop out of the program midway due to professional or personal reasons. It also does not include informal continuation of the program after the session’s official duration (e.g. if you are inaugurated for the Fall 2022 session and decide to continue your relationship with your mentor after the official program timeframe, you will not be eligible to apply for the Best Mentor Award for Spring 2023).
  • If Mentors have more than 1 mentee per session that each submits a nomination, each mentee’s nomination will be assessed individually on its own merit (i.e. the nominations do not stack).

Number of Awards

  • A mentor may receive the award only once.

Eligibility criteria

The award is presented to one (1) outstanding mentor of each mentoring session who has demonstrated leadership ability and efforts towards guiding their mentee in their career or academic development. The intent of the Best Mentor Award is to provide additional recognition to mentors who give their time and expertise to provide exceptional support to SGAC members.

We want to give an award to a mentor that has demonstrated efforts (examples in each category are not exhaustive):

    • Supporting their mentee with their expertise in a particular field/industry (30 points):

      • Providing technical / industry-related advice or guidance to the mentee
      • Helping mentee uncover or firm up their goals in a particular field/industry
    • Leveraging their professional or academic/research experience to support their mentee (30 points):
      • Helping their mentee chart out a career/academic path, or part of a path
      • Connecting mentee with network or to other resources
    • Demonstrating leadership traits and other character aspects in supporting their mentee (30 points):
      • Inspiring mentees, sharing general career advice or advice mentees on leadership development, time management
      • Commitment to meetings agreed upon with mentee, and general responsiveness (does not mean mentees can abuse this, response time within a week is still considered responsiveness)
      • Other examples of going above and beyond to support the mentee, such as advising mentees with a challenge that comes up beyond meetings
    • Additional participation in SGAC Mentoring Program’s activities or other contributions (10 points):
      • Helping to promote the program within organization / inviting other mentors to join the program
      • Participation in Mentoring Program’s one-off events as a Mentor (e.g. participating as a Speed Mentor in SGC webinar or to provide technical expertise in SGAC’s Decode CubeSat competition)
      • Being a speaker at Mentoring Program’s webinars or events.

Nomination and Selection Rules

The nomination will be by the direct mentee from that particular session.

The jury panel is formed of:

  • SGAC Executive Director
  • Minimally 2 SGAC Mentoring Committee Members
  • SGAC Mentoring Program Co-Lead

Evaluation Process

The Jury Panel evaluates and selects the winner, providing rationales for the choices.

The evaluation process is based on the following criteria:

  • Supporting their mentee with their expertise in particular field / industry (30 points)
  • Leveraging their professional or academic / research experience to support their mentee (30 points)
  • Demonstrating leadership traits and other character aspects in supporting their mentee (30 points)
  • Additional participation in SGAC Mentoring Program’s activities or other contributions (10 points)

*Please note that SGAC reserves the right to change these guidelines at its own discretion.

Online Nomination process

The online nomination form would be available once the nomination window opens.