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.

The time commitment is expected to be approximately four hours per month, or ten hours per quarter. We will make every effort to pair graduate student mentees with postdoc mentors 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 this form if you are interested in being matched with 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 February 22, 2021.