Note: The Graduate Student Mentorship Program is a new program in 2024, and it is different from the Conference Mentorship Program. For more information on the conference program, check out this post: https://ssarherps.org/2024/05/ssar-2024-conference-mentorship-program/
Program overview:
Healthy mentorship relationships and strong professional networks help mentees excel academically and reach their career goals, while also increasing their sense of belonging in an institution or profession. Mentors can also benefit from a successful mentor/mentee relationship. However, many mentors have never received formal mentorship training, leaving them to learn through trial and error.
The SSAR Graduate Student Mentorship Program (GSMP) aims to serve both mentees and early-career mentors through two major aims: 1) to provide new grad students (master’s students plus 1st and 2nd year Ph.D. students) in the field of herpetology with near-peer mentors in the same field who can help them reach their academic and career goals while building connections within the herpetological scientific community, and 2) to provide mentorship training and experience to their peer mentors, who are Ph.D. students in herpetology who have advanced to candidacy or postdocs within two years of finishing their Ph.D.
In this program, each peer mentor will be paired with 1-2 mentees, with whom they will meet at least once per month throughout the year-long program (September 2024 – August 2025). All participants (mentors and mentees) will attend online training and orientation sessions at the beginning of the program. Peer mentors will attend three additional special topics training workshops throughout the year, also virtual, and mentees will be offered virtual workshops on a variety of topics. Peer mentors will complete brief monthly reflections on their experiences, which will help guide ongoing development of their mentorship strategies.
For the program’s first year, we expect it will include 12-14 mentees and 6-8 peer mentors. Because the program is enabled by an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, the aim of which is to broaden participation of people from groups underrepresented in biology, we will prioritize applicants from groups that have been historically underrepresented in the biological sciences based on race, ethnicity, LGBTQIA+ identities, disability status, neurodiversity, veteran status, or other forms of identity, as well as their intersection. The program coordinator has substantial leadership experience in SSAR (former Chair of the Student Participation Committee, current Co-Chair of the DEI Committee, and current member of the Long-Range Planning Committee) as well as experience coordinating UC Riverside’s Graduate Student Mentorship Program.
Program expectations
To participate in the Graduate Student Mentorship Program, successful applicants will need to agree to a set of program expectations, listed below. Note that all training, workshops, and other events will be held virtually, over Zoom. Applicants do not have to be current SSAR members, but if they are not, then we will help them secure membership upon acceptance into the program.
Participants will be encouraged (but not required) to attend the Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (JMIH) in July 2025. SSAR has several travel grants to which students can apply to help with the cost of attending a conference.
Expectations for peer mentors:
- Attend a 2-hour training session in late August or early September
- Attend a 1.5-hour mentor + mentee orientation in September
- Meet virtually with each mentee within 1 week after orientation
- For each mentee, the mentor-mentee pair will develop a written agreement of expectations, to be submitted to the program coordinator
- Meet with each mentee at least once per month, and communicate via email, phone, etc. as needed
- Submit a monthly reflection (~½ to 1 page) to the program coordinator
- The program coordinator will read and respond to each reflection, helping to connect mentors to resources as necessary
- Attend three 1-1.5-hour professional development workshops, spread throughout the year
Expectations for mentees:
- Attend a 1.5-hour mentor + mentee orientation in September
- Meet virtually with peer mentor within 1 week after orientation
- The mentor-mentee pair will develop a written agreement of expectations, to be submitted to the program coordinator
- Meet with peer mentor at least once per month, and communicate via email, phone, etc. as needed
- Attend 1-2 academic/professional development workshops per semester (2-3 will be offered, 1-1.5 hours each)
Application forms and contact info:
Peer mentor applications are due on August 2, 2024.
Peer mentors should be current Ph.D. candidates, or postdocs who defended their dissertation within the past two years, with a research focus on amphibians and/or reptiles. Here is the application form for peer mentors: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSep5-a7R_nF5P34Iuq5sRxUI4_3p2va7GkLUza3P8C-faY-Fw/viewform?usp=sf_link
Mentee applications are due on August 9, 2024.
Mentees should be 1st or 2nd year Ph.D. students (start date between July 2023 and September 2024) or master’s students with a research focus on amphibians and/or reptiles. Here is the application form for mentees: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdYQEJEpEMMzscIQncshagJqeo7jnsmbg3IdpBaqbtcGnEBCQ/viewform?usp=sf_link
Questions can be directed to Jessica Tingle, jessica_tingle@brown.edu.