For early-career researchers working across disciplines and countries, finding tailored guidance can be a challenge. In this blog, Lahari Yaddanapudi shares how the EUPHAnxt Mentoring Programme offered her targeted support, fresh perspectives, and practical tools to strengthen her academic journey—with the help of her mentor, Henk Hilderink.

Lahari Yaddanapudi, PhD student, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany.
Dr. Henk Hilderink, EUPHA Foresight Section President

My experience as a mentee with the EUPHAnxt Mentoring Programme

I first met my mentor, Dr. Henk Hilderink, at the European Public Health Conference in Dublin in November 2023, where I had the chance to participate in a workshop he led on foresight techniques. That experience sparked my curiosity, and since then I had followed his work with interest. Being matched with him in the second edition of the EUPHAnxt Mentoring Programme (2024/2025), under the theme Foresight, felt like a unique opportunity to learn more closely from someone whose perspective I already admired. Moreover, the programme promised not only guidance but also the chance to pause, step back, and reflect on where we are heading as young professionals in public health.

My mentor gave me space to discuss both my doctoral work and the bigger question that quietly follows all of us: what comes next? Our conversations were not frequent, but they left me with echoes to carry forward. I received thoughtful feedback on my PhD, and perhaps more importantly, I was encouraged to look beyond the immediate challenges of my PhD and think about the bigger picture: where my work might take me, how foresight can be applied in public health, and what questions I should be asking of myself as I look ahead.

Sometimes mentorship is not about receiving ready-made answers, but about being gently nudged to ask better questions. For me, the experience became less about concrete steps and more about learning to embrace uncertainty, to allow space for foresight, and to imagine myself in roles I had not yet considered.

What I found most valuable was being part of a programme that fosters dialogue across generations and geographies. Knowing that there is a community of peers and mentors committed to supporting each other is, in itself, a source of encouragement.

The EUPHAnxt Mentoring Programme has been, for me, a reminder that career journeys are not linear. They are made of pauses, reflections, and occasional conversations that stay with us longer than we expect.