JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. — Not even a winter storm could keep mentors and protégés from gathering for a “speed mentoring” event at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.

In honor of National Mentoring Awareness Month in January, leaders from the NAWCAD Lakehurst, N.J., site revived its speed mentoring session, introduced to employees a year ago, and revisited in October when it was hosted by the Women’s Advisory Group.

Speed mentoring is similar to speed dating, the popular matchmaking trend where potential romantic partners evaluate each other during brief one-on-one meetings. In speed mentoring, protégés are paired with mentors for seven minutes of discussion. At the end of seven minutes, a bell sounds and protégés rotate to the next mentor. During the Jan. 29 event, 13 protégés spoke with 14 mentors.

The speed mentoring event united new and familiar faces.

“[Speed mentoring] is a great opportunity to meet people that I wouldn’t otherwise get to meet and speak with,” said Jack Martenak, head of the Support Equipment Engineering Division at NAWCAD Lakehurst, who was mentoring in his third event.

Martenak said he received several questions on how to gain new responsibilities and new experiences. “I tried to tell people to not necessarily chart one path,” he said. “Take a chance. Take a risk. Get out of your comfort zone.”

Lisa Heuser, Lakehurst site lead for the Cost Department, attended as a first-time mentor. In her supervisory role, Heuser has been an unofficial mentor for her department and said she wants to formalize the process.

“[Mentoring] is an area I’m extremely interested in…an area I feel is extremely helpful for mentees and mentors,” said Heuser, whose focus area is personal development. “I’m more of a self-improvement person. I think your career will happen. If you just focus on your career, you won’t get as far. Become the best at what you are, where you are, with the tools you are presently given. Focus on having a good work ethic and exposing all of your abilities, so people can recognize you’re a hard worker.”

Heuser said she believes it’s important to take advantage of new opportunities. “The story I told everyone that came to my table looking for advancement is when everyone is running away from the fire, run toward it,” she said. “Take on the difficult tasks. Show that you have the courage to take on something not popular.”

“I told [the protégés] that every promotion I applied for I didn’t think I was good enough to do the job,” she said. “My mentors and people around me encouraged me; and both positions I earned. We can’t always see our full potential like others can.”

Matt Riggi, a logistics management specialist, attended as a first-time protégé.  He said that the best thing about the event was it introduced the potential mentors and the protégés. “You put a face to the name and feel more comfortable in the future to ask them to be a mentor.”

James Hing, a robotics science and technology engineer, was also a first-time attendee. “In general, I enjoyed hearing the perspectives of the mentors,” Hing said. “The best piece of advice was, [as a mentor], you don’t need to fulfill an entire realm of mentoring. You can fill a sub-piece and help in a specific area.”

Hing who said he would like to be a mentor himself, called the event a “great experience overall.”

Nearly every NAVAIR professional community, or competency, was represented at the event, said Marie Pizzella, a Human Resources specialist for the Total Force Strategy and Management Department at NAWCAD Lakehurst. Pizzella and Michael Nguyen, also a Human Resources specialist, organized and facilitated the event.

Pizzella said speed mentoring can help a protégé select a mentor that is a good fit by allowing the protégé to meet with different mentors.

In the future, Pizzella and Nguyen said they plan to provide additional mentoring opportunities, such as training events and lunch sessions.