Step Up Helps Young Women Connect With Mentors To Aid Them In Their Career Journey

Step Up’s Mentorship App, powered by Kérastase, allows women ages 18-29 to get focused career advice, connect with each other, and learn from app-provided guided resources. Since using the app, 80% of its users saw an increase in their self confidence, 71% felt more career ready, and 67% felt more connected to the Step Up community. Step Up acts as a helping hand for those that want to advance their career or who may be going through career changes.

Step Up uses a flash mentorship model. Mentors and mentees can connect one-on-one through the app to get assistance on a direct, in the moment need. This method mitigates any hesitancy a professional may feel when signing up to be a mentor if the time commitment for it doesn’t fit in their schedule. It also helps mentees stay focused on the exact tool needed. For example, if a mentee needs help navigating a performance review from their employer, they can reach out to an available mentor through the app to get advice on how they can improve their received feedback. 

“They are full-time students. Perhaps they’ve just started their career, [and] some of them may be parents. So, being able to commit to meeting with someone once a week at [a] specific time is really difficult,” CEO Delores Druilhet Morton explains to Her Agenda. 

Beyond flash mentorship, the app allows mentees to check in with themselves on a weekly basis. Mentees can document their progress within their academics, career, connections, finances, health, planning, and well being. The app also uses the MentorPro Academy to offer courses to mentees and mentors can use to get guidance on their own. 

Mentees can sign up here and will receive a unique access code to sign in to the app. From here, prospective mentees provide information on the areas they need support in and demographic information. They use filters, including industry, experience level, and personal identities, to help them find an available mentor. Mentors can also sign up for the app here, and while in the app, they are able to set their availability so that mentees know the best time to reach out to them. Barrett explained to Her Agenda how mentors can also use tools in the app to grow professionally. 

“We definitely make an effort to support our mentors on the app. We have different courses that mentors can take to not only develop themselves professionally, but [also] as a mentor. So, [that means], guiding them on how to give advice or how to directly meet some of the needs that the mentees are going through,” Raven Barrett, Step Up’s app manager, said.

Step Up offers opportunities for in-person flash mentorship at their Power Talk series, presented by Kérastase. Step Up chooses a feature mentor to lead at these events that offers expertise to a specific subject matter. These subjects include networking, crafting a resume, or interview preparation. Step Up also invites mentors who can provide their personal experience in how they approach components of the career building process.

“The young women who show up for [these] mentoring events are coming because this mentoring event is focused on mastering [their] personal pitch, or on interview skills, or on how to build a network, or how to leverage [their] network,” says Morton to Her Agenda. 

Step Up has career coaching services through their app and through their Steps to Success Career Coaching for Young Adults program. Empowered by Benefit Cosmetics, Career Coaching allows mentors and mentees to meet four times over three months to receive advice that helps mentees jumpstart their career and provide goal setting tools so that mentees stay on their desired track. These career tracks include career confidence, career clarity, and career advancement.

This year, mentees between 18-29 years old can apply here through September 9. Once they apply, Step Up will match the young woman with a mentor. According to Morton, Step Up aims to create 50 matches this semester. 

Druilhet and Barrett said they’ve seen an improvement in confidence among the women that use the app. The app received a testimonial from a mentee interested in working at NBCUniversal. After connecting with a mentor through the app, this young professional found the courage to quit her job at the time to pursue her dream of working in media. 

“That is really the epitome of what the app works to do. [It’s] not just helping you to define what you’re vision of success is, but [it’s] also to chase that and have confidence in chasing that [vision of success],” Barrett said.

The app currently has 250 active mentees and 204 active mentors, with new sign ups coming in on a weekly basis. Before Morton signed on as CEO, Step Up only offered resources to young women between 14-18 years old. Creating resources for young adult women helps them navigate their professional life without losing touch with their identity. Morton also encourages men to sign up to mentor to offer guidance on how women can navigate work spaces with predominantly men.

“It’s not just for the women to figure out, it’s [not] just for the Black women to figure out. It is a challenge that everyone should feel they can contribute to in a meaningful way,” says Morton to Her Agenda.