When I accepted my admission into my PhD program, at UCR, I was both excited to pursue my research interests but also a little bit worried about how I was going to achieve these ambitious research goals. I had gained some wisdom and foresight from my recent undergraduate experience. I knew that having a mentor with their own set of experiences in graduate school would help me avoid making those small mistakes that I worried might set me back on my goals. So, when I saw the opportunity to be a GSMP mentee, I immediately signed up.

[Image description: Dre (Jaden Smith) is being asked by his Karate teacher (Jackie Chan) in the Karate Kid (2010) to repeatably practice taking his off jacket,  hanging it up, and dropping it oblivious to his teacher’s karate teaching method.]

Pictured: Sometimes as a mentee you question your mentor’s advice but trust the process because they’re trying to help you avoid the same mistakes they made.

My first year in graduate school as a mentee was great because although I was in an Anthropology program and my mentor was in the Religious Studies department, she was using all the same research methods in approaching her research as well. I even found myself telling my fellow first year cohort members all the useful tips and tricks on navigating various departments and funds across campus because my mentor had already explained those processes to me. In graduate school we can find ourselves being a little too busy to find time for others. Often times I felt a little shy to ask others grad students in my department for help but I knew my GSMP mentor had aside so time for me in our weekly meetings and email exchanges so I could always ask them.

[Image description: Obi Wan (Ewan McGregor) and Qui Gon Jinn (Liam Nelson) in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace standing side by side readying their lightsabers for action.]

Pictured: Being a GSMP mentor can feel like a Jedi Knight having taken on some Padawans (mentees) to mentor and train.

I knew that being a mentee was not enough for my learning experience and that I needed to take on my own mentees to further grow as an academic. So, I jumped at the opportunity to be a GSMP mentor to get experience helping someone who had faced the same issues and doubts that I had as a mentee. My time as a GSMP mentor I learned more than when I was a mentee because I got asked questions from my mentees that I had never even thought of. I got opportunities to have great academic conversations with my mentees and help them further develop their research question in the process helping to develop my own internal logic surrounding my research.

I always had time scheduled for my mentees to help them with any questions and it never felt overwhelming because my conversations with mentees just felt like colleagues getting an opportunity to pick each other brains. I learned a lot about my mentee's disciplines through our conversations. In helping my mentees solve their issues as first year students in navigating the university and their research projects I also got a better sense of my own confusion when I was in my first year. You know recently graduated or post doctorate faculty members are often always assigned a more experienced faculty mentor to help them adjust to the department, so mentorship is a part of all our disciplines. In being a GSMP mentor I gained the skills and experiences that I will use when I mentor my own graduate students or faculty colleagues as a future faculty member  and advisor at a university.