Since 2015, WiSER and UA-WiSE have been working together to organize the UA-WiSE/WiSER Mentorship Program to connect mentors with mentees and help mentees achieve their professional or personal goals. The program is eight-months long and runs every year. Over the past five years, the program has benefited over 100 individuals who were interested in or working in STEM fields.
This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, WiSER and UA-WiSE are hosting the Mentorship Program virtually. The organizing committee stated that this decision would not compromise the quality of the program. The program will still operate in its unique “trio structure,” where an undergraduate student is matched with a graduate student or an early-career professional, along with an experienced professional. The graduate student or early-career professional will be mentored by the experienced professional, and will in turn mentor the undergraduate student.
“Within the last four years, being a mentor to over eight amazing women students, scientists, scholars through the UA-WiSE/WiSER Trio Mentoring Program has been a privilege,” said Dinuka Gunaratne, a mentor in the program, former Career Education Coordinator (Graduate Students) at the University of Alberta and currently working at Canadian Association of Graduate Studies. “My mentee was not only a mentee but also now a good friend. She taught me many things and I got to see her accomplish and grow over the last three years that I have known her.”
The UA-WiSE/WiSER Mentorship Program is now open for applications for mentors until August 21, 2020. The application for mentees will open on September 1, 2020. For more information on specific dates of program events and eligibility, please check out the Mentorship Program page here.
