With a successful kick-off event, the mentoring programme for female Master's students BreakING at the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering entered its second round on 12 October 2023.

Female role models in industry and research are still hard to find and even more difficult for students to reach. This is where the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering comes in with the BreakING mentoring programme, which links female Master's students with experienced female managers. The Faculty also provides targeted support for the English-speaking mentees who are taking part in the programme for the first time this year. The structured programme teaches skills that support successful career entry and strategic career planning - but above all, it brings female students together with female executives who have been holding their own in "typical" male industries for many years.

In addition to the mentees and mentors as well as the BreakING team, Andrea Kaus, the RUB's Head of Department for Organisational and Human Resources Development, was among the guests at the successful kick-off event on 12 October 2023 in the RUB Event Centre. As the experienced initiator of the mentoring programme for STEM students "Thekla" in 2002, she found particularly motivating words for the mentees of the second BreakING round. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Marc Wichern, Dean of the Faculty, also emphasised how important it is to promote the potential of prospective female engineers and praised the equality work within the framework of BreakING.

Formerly a "Thekla" mentor and now Vice President Global Sales at the US company FlowServe - Dipl.-Ing. Monika Grünewald has successfully asserted herself against her male competitors several times during her impressive career. During her key note lecture, she told us about her challenges and doubts, but also about her right decisions and positive experiences as well as the new intercultural territory on her way to becoming Vice President Global Sales in the end. The lively Q&A session and discussion with the mentees and mentors afterwards showed how inspiring and impressive the key note lecture was received by the guests at the kick-off.

The BreakING mentors have already walked the path in an "atypical" industry and will accompany the mentees over the next few months to face their personal hurdles and develop themselves further. The BreakING team is pleased to welcome Mercedes Buyala (owner and Managing Director of the agency for events, print and web design ZEITGEIST for over 20 years as well as market leader in the field of gamification), Giulia Daniele (Managing Director at Tecnostrutture Deutschland | leading specialist in the planning and production of steel-concrete composite structures), Nicole Jaschinski (Management at the engineering company Schüßler-Plan) and Dr. Annett Schmeck (Managing Director of the Faculty of Philosophy and Educational Sciences and Project Manager for Education at Stiftung Mercator) as mentors for the programme. Mentees and mentors got to know each other for the first time in a cosy atmosphere at the kick-off event.