Are you a current UBC Psychology graduate student or postdoctoral researcher? Mentor undergraduate students!
Our Diversity Mentorship Program offers mentorship and professional development support for students from diverse, under-resourced, traditionally underrepresented, and/or marginalized backgrounds who are interested in pursuing research-oriented graduate study in psychology. The mentees are advanced undergraduates or recent graduates from around the world.
I think the most rewarding part for me is being able to help people who share similar (or different) backgrounds with me, and help them achieve what they want to achieve. I wish I had a mentor when I was applying to grad schools.
“Creating connections with prospective graduate students is wonderful. Rarely do I feel like I have an opportunity to connect with people who share similar identities to me, and doing so in a way where I can support them feels meaningful.”
“It's been really nice for me to provide someone with some of the knowledge and advice I wish I had when applying to grad school”.
“I think the most rewarding part for me is being able to help people who share similar (or different) backgrounds with me, and help them achieve what they want to achieve. I wish I had a mentor when I was applying to grad schools.”
“I liked being able to help students that weren't necessarily from UBC. I worked with students with very different paths to grad school than I took, some had degrees in different fields or were educated in other countries. Helping them find their strengths and showcase them in their applications was incredibly rewarding.”
“iI was very fulfilling for me to have the opportunity to formally support others from around the world in this structured program.”
“I really loved getting to give back to the next generation of psychology grad students.”
We have made changes to the program this year based on feedback from past mentors & mentees!
Involvement and time commitment
The time commitment is estimated to be approximately 7 to 13 hours over the year:
- Group mentoring (about 4 hours): As a mentor, you would commit to participating in several small-group mentoring sessions across the academic year, all on Zoom. There will be multiple mentors and mentees in each group to foster social connections and conversation. These group mentoring sessions will be scheduled throughout the year and on different days/times to accommodate mentors’ schedules.
- One-on-one mentoring (about 0 – 6 hours): This year, mentors and mentees will not be matched at the start of the program. Instead, mentees are encouraged to attend group mentoring sessions first. If they want additional one-on-one mentorship, they can request to be matched with specific mentors. We will have a private webpage (accessible to program participants only) with profiles of the mentors. If a mentee requests to be matched with you, you can decide whether or not you are the right person to mentor them. Each mentor could have a maximum of 3 mentees that they work with one-on-one (or as few as zero).
- Equity & Mentorship Training (2 hours): Mentors will learn about barriers to education faced by scholars from diverse backgrounds, racial bias and microaggressions within academia, and evidence-based approaches for supporting students.
- Mentored mentorship (~1 hour): You will be assigned a faculty member (Drs. Ben Cheung, Todd Handy, Connor Kerns, or Nancy Sin) who will serve as your mentoring resource throughout the year. You will be asked to attend at least 1 group meeting during the year with the faculty member and other graduate/postdoc mentors. This meeting can address a range of mentoring questions that you might have, such as broader principles of mentorship or getting support on specific questions or issues that may arise in your experience in this program.
- Workshops (attendance optional): Mentors are welcome to attend the year-long workshop series, which will be held monthly on Zoom. The workshops will cover a variety of professional development topics in psychology.
Benefit of being a mentor
- You will gain experience in mentoring students from diverse backgrounds, while having training and support from a faculty member. This experience can be personally rewarding for you and the mentees. It will also be valuable for your career (e.g., for job applications, working with diverse teams in the future).
- Mentors will receive an honorarium.
- OPTIONAL: Volunteer to give a presentation or serve as a panelist in the online workshop series.
Applications
At this time, we are only accepting mentor applications from current graduate students and postdoctoral fellows affiliated with the Department of Psychology at UBC.
