Newsletter
The MCAA Academy is a new program to support the career development of MCAA members with mentoring at its core. We interviewed Mariana Rosca to learn more about the motivation behind and objectives of this initiative.
What is the new MCAA mentoring initiative and why was it created?
MCAA Academy is a new mentoring program of MCAA and was created to support the career development of MCAA member. “Our advanced mentoring platform provides a continuous, full-spectrum learning experience, allowing mentees to focus on the skills that matter the most, when they matter the most. It consists of mentoring members for their next career steps and providing them with support for their career development plan.”
How can one contribute to the initiative? Can anyone become a mentor or a mentee?
All MCAA alumni can become both mentors or mentees, depending on their interest and expertise. To join the platform is very easy and it requires to follow just three simple steps (see “how do I join the MCAA Academy platform?” ). To contribute, it is necessary to register first. When the registration is complete, you are free to start interacting with peers, sharing the experiences/expertise or learning from others.
Mariana Rosca,
a personal account
Mariana Rosca is MCAA´s Ordinary Board Member from 2022, a freelance trainer and a researcher. Currently, she participates in the development of the curriculum and assists in the creation of teaching tools for a new human rights course at the Moldova State University that aims to foster human rights education in Moldova. he is also a project director at the Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania for the project “@Work: Resilient societies in the wake of persistent crises. A case study of Ukrainian women refugees’ digital work” financed by the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitalization from Romania.
What is the difference between the MCAA and other publicly available mentoring initiatives (e.g., Euraxess)?
The MCAA Academy has been specifically designed for MCAA members. It relies on each member's contribution to advance their own and their peers' career development as well as the engagement of the overall MCAA community. Also, unlike other similar platforms, the MCAA mentoring initiative is not managed from the top. It has a more peer to peer approach, where each member, depending on their career needs, can identify common interests, get in contact with the members and share information and resources each one needs most, etc. So, in addition to a mentoring platform, it also acts as a networking platform.
How will the initiative be coordinated?
The launch of the initiative has been coordinated by the board members but, as mentioned before, it is aimed to foster direct cooperation between alumni. Being such a big community of more than 20K members, it is necessary to have optional free and safe spaces of cooperation amongst the members, without any coordination. However, at the registration stage, there is a need to have some support and from July 2023, Antonino Puglisi (Nino) has joined the operational team as the Community Manager, and one of his core tasks is to help with the MCAA mentoring platform. Of note, Nino is also an active MCAA member, so despite this being a professional work, it keeps an “inside” coordination.+
What do you expect from this initiative? What are your hopes and visions for the mentoring platform?
The initiative is in its first steps of trial, and we hope to soon have many registered and active members, and then be able to start developing this initiative into a vibrant community, where each member could find support in advancing their careers as well as sharing their experiences.
Would you like to share any final words or remarks ?
From the board, as we mentioned during the annual conference in Cordoba when the platform was officially launched, we invite all the MCAA members to register and actively participate in the platform, by becoming mentors or mentees.
Being connected inside the MCAA mentoring platform will make it possible for everyone to stay in touch, make the MCAA more connected, expand one's professional network and develop fruitful connections across different sectors and career stages.
Mariana Rosca
MCAA Board Member
Namrata Iyer
Editorial Board Member, MCAA Newsletter