The PyCon US 2026 Proposal Mentorship Program sign up is now closed. Thank you to all who volunteered and made this year's program a success!
Are you a seasoned speaker and want to mentor new presenters? Are you considering submitting a proposal to PyCon US 2026 and would like guidance on your proposal?
If you answered yes to either of these questions, this mentorship program is for you!
Mentees
The purpose of this program is to pair experienced proposal submitters with those who are seeking guidance. Proposals could be for Talks, Charlas, Tutorials, and Posters. Mentees may be in different stages of their proposal writing and may need help with different aspects of their proposal.
Mentors
We need mentors!! We typically get twice the number of mentees seeking support than we do for volunteer mentors.
Roles of a mentor include:
- Help answer questions folks may have about their proposal.
- Help proposal submitters better understand what information goes into the proposal form.
- Help review proposal drafts.
- Help identify where information is lacking or excessive.
- Guide mentees to online resources such as the ones listed here:
How will this work?
Our goal is to have one mentor per mentee. We are looking to find pairs in the same timezone or even in the same country to make meetings a bit simpler.
Once folks are paired up, we will introduce mentors and mentees via email, ask mentees to share prepared material, and recommend that reviews happen asynchronously.
We are asking mentors to communicate asynchronously with mentees during the two weeks of December 1, 2025, through December 15, 2025. We know folks are busy, so we are recommending everyone start with asynchronous review and take it from there. If folks want to schedule video calls or virtual check-ins, they can do so on their own.