DVS Mentorship Program

DVS brings together data visualization practitioners from across disciplines, techniques, and tech stacks.

Through the mentorship program, you can explore a new path within our field, advance your skills in an area of practice you feel passionate about already, and, as a mentor, help to demystify career paths and learning opportunities in data visualization.

With only three cohorts every year, don’t miss your chance to join as a mentor or mentee.

Success stories

“My experience with the mentorship program was extremely fulfilling. My mentee was very curious and was looking to make a career change late in her life. Her commitment to improving herself inspired me. Thank you DVS for encouraging me to share knowledge. I grew in more ways than I can count. ”
— Tichafara Mabiza (Mentor)
“My mentor and I were extremely well paired: we share a love of puzzles, board games, and libraries. She is a Tableau Visionary and my role at work involves using Tableau. My goal, however, went beyond gaining expertise in Tableau. I wanted to develop 3-10 new puzzles for a 2024 puzzle advent calendar. My mentor playtested 5 different puzzles, answered 6 Tableau questions and provided a listening ear for professional venting. The weekly structure of this mentorship forced me to be accountable and turn in work on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. I met my goal and intend to stay in touch with my mentor in the future!”
— Anna Stevens (Mentee)
 

Hear from our mentors and mentees

Schools of Thought: The DVS Mentorship Program by Christopher Laubenthal & Saloni Goel

Become a mentor

We’re proud to share that 40% of our mentors return for another cohort. As a mentor, you support data visualization learning and help mentees navigate their career options.

Any experienced data visualization practitioner (5 or more years doing data visualization) can apply to be a mentor. You do not have to be a DVS Member.

Applications are always open.

Become a mentee

As a mentee, you will be matched with an experienced mentor to advance skills in an area of practice or get insight into different paths within our field.

To be eligible, mentees must have less than 5 years of data visualization experience and is a DVS Plus member.

Applications for the Oct - Dec cohort are now closed.

How the mentorship program works

  • We plan to hold three cohorts in 2024 - February through April, June through August, and October through December.

    Mentee applications for the October through December cohort are now closed. In January, we will open applications for the next cohort, February - April.

    Mentor applications remain open all year.

  • Any experienced data visualization practitioner (5 or more years doing data visualization) is eligible to sign up as a mentor within the program.

    Participation as a mentee within the program is currently limited to dues-paying members of DVS. The mentorship program takes some focused attention to coordinate; thus we currently include participation as a paid member benefit. At this point, the program is focused on mentorship for early career visualizers - those with fewer than 5 years of experience in data viz - but we hope to expand to all phases and stages of career development in the future.

  • Mentees will be asked about the type of work they want to do in a mentorship experience, what topics they are interested in, and what tools or technologies they want to use. Mentees can think about the choices as completing the following sentence:

    I want to _________ in __________ using ____________.

    I want to learn about data processing in environment, weather, and climate using Python.

    I want to build skills in data visualization design using D3.

    For each, you will be asked to indicate which are your:

    • top priorities (e.g., opportunities in which you would be jumping for joy to work with a mentor)

    • areas of interest but lower priority (e.g., opportunities in which you would still appreciate mentorship)

    • areas with the least or no interest (e.g., topics you already know or would not be useful for you to learn)

  • We want to make sure as many people as feasible can experience this member benefit, but we have to be realistic about our capacity and the availability of mentors. General prioritization is as follows:

    • Eligible applicants who were not matched in a prior cohort and are still interested in mentorship.

    • Applicants who have been a paid member of the DVS for a longer period of time.

    • Applicants who have never before been matched to a mentor in the DVS Mentorship Program.*

    We aim to match 100 mentees each cohort; this number may vary based on availability and suitability of mentors (e.g., if there is a surplus of mentors that do not align with mentee needs, we will not force a match). We will post a notice at the top of this page when we will no longer be considering additional applications for a given cohort, though the form will remain open for future cohorts until the deadline. Applications will be open for at least two weeks.

    *Previous mentees who are still considered early career may apply for additional mentorship cohorts, but they will be lower priority than applicants who have never been matched before.

  • Throughout the 3-month program, you’ll have the following touchpoints with the Mentorship Program:

    • Kickoff event: Participants will receive an Orientation video with all the details about the program.

    • Individual meetings: Have one-on-one meetings with your mentor 6-10 times over 10 weeks.

    • Group chat: Private Slack channel with your mentor and other mentors and mentees in your cohort.

    Celebration and Showcase event: Time to talk about your experience during the program, share a project you worked on, and network with fellow mentors and mentees.

    At the conclusion of the program, the mentor and mentee can decide if they’d like to stay connected and continue collaborating or supporting each other in new ways. We’ve deliberately designed the facilitated program to be time-limited, with the goal that the pairs can focus on a specific learning goal and to simplify planning around your time and bandwidth during the program period. We’ll have new cohorts launching in the future!

  • Send an email to programs@datavisualizationsociety.org and mentorship@datavisualizationsociety.org.