The new e-mentor program groups brings graduate and undergraduate students in engineering together to promote intercultural networking. This program was started through the Ames Education Initiative.

“This year, the program has around 275 people, and last year it had around 200 people,” said Alyse Ridpath, a program coordinator.

The program allows for two types of events. There are events that are organized for the entire group, and there are smaller, more frequent activities for the clusters.

“The cluster has two graduate students and three to five undergraduate students,” Ridpath said.

These clusters allow for the students to get to know each other. They are a mixture of international students and domestic students.

“It’s not an academic program by any means,” Ridpath said, “It’s a voluntary cultural sharing program.”

One of the goals the e-mentor program wants to accomplish is increasing interaction, both between graduate and undergraduate students and between international students and domestic students.

“We really want to create a sense of community for the international students,” Ridpath said.

Each cluster has two international students. Incoming freshman are typically domestic students and represent the undergraduate students in the cluster. The clusters are organized by time availability, and cultural backgrounds, as international students are never paired from the same country said Ridpath.

Recruitment for these voluntary groups happens in the summer, and there are around 60 graduate students currently involved with the program.

Students who participate in these groups find it very beneficial.

“It’s been nice to meet with people on a weekly or biweekly basis and get to know a group of people,” said Michael Mohr, freshman in aerospace engineering and a student in one of the clusters.

He said that getting an international perspective is a neat experience. In Mohr’s cluster, the two graduate students are international, while the undergraduate students are domestic.

Mohr said that this is something he would like to continue doing, even when he becomes a graduate student.

“It would be kind of fun to go back and see things the other way around,” Mohr said.

Cluster meetings happen every two to four weeks and are coordinated by the graduate students. The clusters get together to do a variety of things, such as meals or bowling.

Ruchir Goswami, graduate student in Mohr’s cluster, is on his second round of e-mentoring. He started last year when the program began.

“The best part about this thing is that it gives me a sense of how the schooling is done,” Goswami said.

Goswami stated that it helps him understand the differences and similarities in the schooling in the United States versus the schooling in India, where he is from.

This program has helped with the connection of students and it helps on both a social level and an academic level Goswami said.

“It’s actually a lot of fun because the way we live our lives is very different,” Goswami said.