Mentor Groups

Purpose and Background: Groups consist of 6-7 junior participants and 2 senior facilitators.  The groups are intended to provide peer and traditional mentoring.  Each group meets monthly via conference call for approximately 1-2 hours depending on group preferences.  The objectives are to help participants make networking connections, to offer coaching, advice and strategies for professional success, and to share the experiences of both senior scientists and peers.

To ensure that the mentor groups offer an immediate tangible benefit to participants, everyone is asked to formulate specific goals that they wish to work toward during the coming year.  Prior to the first meeting of the group, each member and mentor group leader receives a notebook containing the biography and goals for each participant.  These goals, along with other topical issues, are discussed during the mentor group calls.

Joining: To join a mentor group, mentees must be scientists who identify as women+ (women and and underrepresented genders) in the last year of a U.S. PhD program (within 1 year of completing the dissertation), or in a postdoctoral position, or in a permanent position for no more than two years. Participation is open to pursuit of all career tracks, which is broadly defined as ‘utilizing skills gained in your PhD’.  MPOWIR considers group membership and participation to be confidential, and will work to ensure mentor leaders come from separate institutions from participants as much as is possible.

To better meet the needs of the Physical Oceanography community, MPOWIR is piloting mentor groups with a particular focus.  At this point, there is expressed interest in a group to facilitate LGBTQ issues, minoritized racial and ethnic groups and groups that meet at unconventional times (ie in the evenings or on weekends) to better facilitate work schedules. We are open to exploring other opportunities, and welcome suggestions. These options, and your suggestions, can be emailed to sclem@uri.edu or entered when registering for a group.

Mentor Group registration is now OPEN. Please use the link below to register by Friday, October 25th, 2024. Groups will have their first calls in early 2025. You can also sign up to receive updates by using the ‘Subscribe’ form on the MPOWIR home page.

Unjoining: The mentor group commitment is for two years.  After two years, each group member may choose to remain in her current group if it continues, switch to another group, or leave mentor groups altogether.  Continued peer-to-peer mentoring is highly encouraged and MPOWIR will provide support to any group that wishes to meet without their group leaders.  Mentees may leave the group before two years at their own discretion.

Privacy/Problems: Membership in the groups, with the exception of the leaders is confidential. Topics discussed in mentoring group meetings must remain confidential unless all participants specifically agree to an outreach action.  Failure by participant or leader to maintain confidentiality will result in immediate expulsion from the groups. Problems that cannot be resolved within a group should be brought to the attention of the logistic coordinator, Sarah Clem (sclem@uri.edu).

Special Circumstances: Some mentees may benefit from one-on-one mentoring, and mentor group leaders may meet “off line” with an individual, however, those who would benefit from more intensive mentoring may be referred to another senior scientist with particular knowledge or expertise.  MPOWIR maintains a list of several “on call” senior scientists who have volunteered to talk with a mentee about specific issues.  If a mentee would like to engage in a conversation with an “on call” mentor, MPOWIR will make these arrangements through the group leaders.

Leadership involvement: MPOWIR is beginning the process of identifying leaders for new groups for 2023. If you are interested in leading, or have suggestions for group leaders, please submit responses via the form linked below, or email Sarah Clem (sclem@uri.edu).

Our goal is to better match race/ethnicity demographics of leadership to that of the participant pool, so we especially encourage recommendations of potential group leaders from racial and ethnic minorities. Leaders are women and marginalized and underrepresented genders, typically at least 5 years into their respective career path, and are from all employment sectors.

Leadership form: https://uri.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9QAGcFgNqgboHqd