Supporting Graduate Students' Academic and Professional Success
Faculty Mentors
We are very appreciative of our faculty mentors who make the program a beneficial experience for both the first-year mentees and the peer mentors!
The faculty mentor’s primary interaction is with the peer mentors in the GSMP. Faculty mentors offer valuable guidance to peer mentors concerning their mentorship of first-year mentees. Peer mentors may seek guidance about advising mentees through situations the peer mentor has never experienced. They also act as an additional point of professional contact for the first-year mentees. Rather than supplementing the Graduate Advisor’s role, the GSMP faculty mentor provides advice about how to engage in the professional environment of the academy. Faculty mentors may discuss topics such as how a mentee can approach his/her professor with a concern or how a mentee can prioritize the tasks they are asked to perform.
We realize that faculty are busy, so we try to keep their obligations to the program minimal. We ask that they:
Be available to serve a full academic year, fall through spring.
Meet with community members in the mentoring cluster individually or in a group and submit the mentee and mentor report form on the GSMP website quarterly.
Attend GSMP and campus-wide events with GSMP cluster members when possible.
Contact the GSMP Specialist or the Director of GradSuccess if a mentee is showing signs of not adjusting to graduate school well or if mentors seems to be having trouble interacting with their mentees.
CIMER
GSMP Faculty and Postdoctoral Scholar mentors are given access to the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER) curriculum as part of continued training and reflection on the mentorship enterprise. The UCR Graduate Division and GSMP have partnered with CIMER to implement evidence-based, interactive mentor training curricula that engage mentors of all career stages in collective problem-solving and connect them with resources to optimize their mentoring practices. The curricula series addresses the new NIGMS guidelines regarding the preparation of mentors involved in training grants. The themes and concepts covered in the curricula include aligning expectations, articulating your mentoring philosophy and plan, assessing mentee understanding, cultivating ethical behavior, fostering independence, maintaining effective communication, promoting professional development, and reflecting on diversity & establishing a practice of inclusion.
