Mentorship Resources

Mentorship is one of the most concretely impactful ways to give back for all the opportunities that have been provided to us over the course of our educations. Additionally, mentorship may be one mechanism we can use to address some the diversity issues we face the Redwood Center. In particular, active recruitment of undergraduate mentees may be one way reach some students who would otherwise not even realize that working in computationally oriented group like ours is something approachable for them.

Somethings we should work on:

1. Organizing a list of mentorship projects that are available at the Redwood.
2. Establishing a procedure for students to apply to mentorship opportunities with us.
3. Finding effective channels for active recruitment of talented mentees-- for example, we might consider attending meetings of undergraduate organizations whose interests overlap with the Redwood to let them know about opportunities available here.
4. Providing training for graduate students on how to be a successful mentor.

What follows is the beginning of list of resources for mentorship and outreach at Berkeley. Please add to it!

Undergraduate Mentorship

• The Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program (URAP) provides a central list of research projects that are available for undergraduates in different departments across campus. For undergraduates how stick with with a project during the fall and spring semesters there are some $2500 stipends available to continue research over the summer. Undergraduates apply for the Fall 2014 program starting on August 21-- we should consider getting some research opportunity postings up there.
• The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) provides funding for a small number of exceptional undergraduates to do research over the summer. Students apply at the end of February/beginning of March. If you have talented undergrad working with you make sure they know about this!
• The NSF Research Experience for Undgraduates (REU) program provides some funding for undergraduates to work on NSF funded research projects. This may be on mechanism to get funding for an undergraduate research assistant.
• The Undergraduate-Graduate Mentorship Program (UGMP) pairs undergraduates with graduates students to get mentorship advice, for example, on preparing to apply for graduate school. Applications to participate in the spring program are due at the beginning of December.

Mentorship of younger students

• The Summer Math and Science Honors (SMASH) Topics in Current Science Research course is an opportunity to lead a simple research project with small group of underprivleged high school students.