The University of California Office of the President has provided funding to UCR to support programs that promote diversity among the future professoriate. Postdoctoral employment is an area of increasing importance in pursuit of an academic career path. However, it is also an area that can be mystifying to graduate students from historically underrepresented backgrounds. To address this issue, Graduate Division has proposed a program in which UCR postdocs will serve as unofficial mentors to a diverse range of graduate students chosen to participate in the program. It is our intention that this program will assist graduate students in better understanding the process involved in obtaining, and succeeding in, postdoc positions, and also provide postdocs with an opportunity to gain additional experience in one-on-one mentoring of emerging scholars in ways that support their professional development as well.

Postdoc mentors will commit to mentor no more than three graduate students over the course of an academic year. The time commitment is expected to be approximately four hours per month, or ten hours per quarter, and in return postdoc mentors will be paid an honorarium of $250/quarter. We will make every effort to pair mentors with graduate student mentees in the same or a similar discipline, though this cannot be guaranteed. Topics that postdoc mentors may wish to discuss with their mentees include:

• How to find postdoc positions
• Workload expectations
• Logistics (moving, connecting to a new institution, etc)
• Maintaining relationships
• Pursuing a tenure-track academic position as a postdoc

Please fill out the form below if you are interested in serving as a postdoc mentor. If you have any questions, please contact GradSuccess Director Dr. Hillary Jenks at hillary.jenks@ucr.edu.

Please submit by 5pm on January 28, 2021.