SPEAKER AND MENTOR GUIDELINES

*This document was last updated on June 2, 2023

Thank you for your interest in becoming a Wonder Girls Speaker and/or Mentor. Speakers and Mentors will be working with middle school, high school, and college-aged girls from various schools and community centers throughout New York and New Jersey.  As the Wonder Girls program continues to expand, Wonder Girls requires all Speakers and Mentors to adhere to the following guidelines:

*Please note:  Because many of our workshops, events, and presentations take place inside educational facilities and involve school-aged children, Wonder Girls staff/school may require Speakers and Mentors to undergo background checks and a review of all social media networks.  

Professionalism:  Wonder Girls asks that all Speakers and Mentors conduct themselves in a professional manner at all times.  To conduct oneself in a professional manner is to be prepared and prompt for all events, speaking engagements, workshops, volunteer days, etc.  Speakers will arrive 15-30 minutes prior to the program start time to allow for set up and to go over any last-minute changes to the schedule.  Mentors will arrive 10 minutes prior to the start of the program. 

The safety of our Wonder Girls is of the utmost importance and professionalism extends to your interactions with the participants.  Speakers and Mentors should not give out their personal contact information to any of the students, unless given permission by Wonder Girls staff.  All phone or in-person contact with participants outside of the Wonder Girls program must be coordinated and approved by the Wonder Girls staff.

The Role of Mentors:  As a mentor, your role is to support the workshop or volunteer day.  No preparation is required.  Dress professionally.  Every workshop is led by a speaker and includes a specific topic from the Wonder Girls curriculum.  At the beginning of each workshop, you are given an opportunity to introduce yourself as a mentor and to share your personal and professional journey ie. Where did you go to school?  What did you study?  What do you do now?  How did you get from point A to B? Any pivotal moment in your life that you’d like to share?  Once the workshop begins, the speaker will lead the girls through a PowerPoint presentation and open discussion.  As a mentor, feel free to add to the conversation based on the topic.  Give examples of your own life experiences that would add to the conversation.  Some of the workshops include a hands-on activity at the end.  Your role is to help the girls through the activity as added support.  Your program director will provide all the details and help guide you as well.  If you are a mentor for a volunteer day, your role is to be a part of the day, help the girls through the activity, spark up conversations with the girls,  and most importantly, have fun!  

Dress Code:  Wonder Girls requires Speakers and Mentors to dress in business or business casual attire when presenting or attending any school workshops. The SignUp Genius scheduler will indicate whether it is a “Workshop Day” or a “Volunteer Day.” For all Volunteer Day, Speakers and Mentors can dress causally (jeans are fine) and in Wonder Girls apparel (t-shirts/sweatshirts.)  Your Wonder Girls contact will notify you of the appropriate attire in advance if needed.  

Social Media:  Speakers and mentors are encouraged to share their own content from a Wonder Girls workshop, volunteer day, or event, and content posted by Wonder Girls.  Wonder Girls also asks that Speakers and Mentors be mindful of what is posted and avoid posting commentary, content, or images that are defamatory, disparaging, harassing, threatening, discriminatory, sexually suggestive, obscene, offensive, proprietary, libelous, or hostile.  If you see that Wonder Girls participants begin to follow you on social media, in general, please be mindful of what you are posting both personally and professionally.  Your content can have an impact on our Wonder Girls and you are inevitably an extension of the Wonder Girls brand.  

*Click here to review the Wonder Girls’ Social Media Policy.   

General Presentation Guidelines for Speakers:  

  • Wonder Girls staff will provide Speakers with templates to be used for all PowerPoint presentations.  Presentation slides will reflect the Wonder Girls brand only.  Headshots, business, and personal information cannot be included on any of the PowerPoint slides.

  • If the PowerPoint presentation templates are not provided by Wonder Girls staff, Speakers are responsible for preparing an outline of the content on a Word document.  The outline must be submitted to Wonder Girls for edits and approval at least 7 days prior so that Wonder Girls can create the design of the ppt.  We don’t want to take away from your creativity and knowledge,  this is just in order to stay on brand and organized as we expand.   

  • All Presentations must adhere to the Wonder Girls curriculum and be representative of the topic being discussed.  Your audience is primarily made up of middle school, high school, and college-aged girls.  In addition, all presentation slides, additional materials, handouts, etc. must be reviewed and approved by Wonder Girls staff prior to all workshops and events.  

  • Presentation content and remarks should use inclusive language that demonstrates respect for all people and cultures.  Please be sensitive to the choice of language and use of anecdotes and refrain from using curse words or making sexist remarks.  Avoid controversial topics and racial, political, or religious references (unless the topic calls for these references).  Do NOT use humor at the expense of any members of the audience.

  • Presentations should remain within the allotted time to include time for Q&A.  Workshops run from 45 minutes to 1 hour and 30 minutes. Please check with Wonder Girls staff regarding the duration of your workshop as the time may vary depending on the needs of each school program.  

  • In keeping with best practices, speakers are encouraged to make their presentations as interactive as possible with group activities, projects, Q&A, and discussions. Keep your talking points short to allow for our Wonder Girls to openly share their thoughts and opinions.   

  • Promotion of any product or service within the presentation and/or through the distribution of written promotional materials are NOT allowed unless approved by Wonder Girls in advance.  

NOTE:  We understand that many of our Speakers and Mentors are accomplished authors.  Please discuss this ahead of time with your Wonder Girls contact if you wish to reference your book(s) in the presentation or hand out copies to the students.