Graduate mentorship

As a graduate student, mentorship is an important component of your personal, academic, and professional development. The Graduate College encourages all graduate students to seek out mentoring opportunities, both within your academic unit and beyond.

Find mentorship  

ASU attracts graduate students and postdoctoral scholars from all demographics. Our Graduate College mentoring groups are designed to provide safe spaces for graduate students from underrepresented communities to engage and navigate their academic, cultural, and interpersonal identities in thoughtful, meaningful ways. 

The Graduate College offers small, peer-led mentoring groups for graduate students from underrepresented or emerging communities through its identity-based SHADES Multicultural and HUES LGBTQIA+  community mentoring initiatives in conjunction with our CIRCLES mentoring platform. 

Additional ASU mentoring resources:

• ASU Graduate Faculty Search Tool. Graduate Faculty links doctoral students with the best ASU has to offer, including research professors, scholars, and those from ASU-related affiliations, such as Mayo Clinic, TGen, Barrow Neurological Institute, and Banner Health.

• ASU Mentor Network. With a fast-growing network of over 10,000 faculty, students and alumni, the ASU Mentor Network allows students to find peers and faculty with related academic or career interests, network with alumni and match with prospective mentors based on their individualized mentoring needs.

• National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity. As a part of its inclusion and diversity initiatives, ASU is proud to be an institutional member of the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity. The NCFDD offers a variety of webinars, training materials, and other resources ideal for faculty, postdoctoral scholars and graduate students. Individual free account activation required.

Best practices for students

• Creating a Mentoring Agreement
• Goal Setting
• Initiating Mentoring Relationships
• Choosing a Mentoring Program
• Peer Mentoring
• Best Practices for Peer Mentoring

Workshops

Mentoring Matters Series

Mentoring Matters is a new workshop series designed for graduate students and academic units interested in developing stronger mentorship practices and frameworks. Workshops are designed for virtual facilitation.

Mentoring Matters: Identifying Your Mentoring Needs

In this workshop, participants will learn why mentorship is important to graduate student persistence and success; learn the difference between advising and mentorship; identify their own mentoring needs; and be introduced to a multiple-mentor model. Activities will include assessment of your mentoring needs and priorities, development of a mentoring map, and considerations in selecting a mentor.

90 minutes | Request a session

 Mentoring Matters: Building Effective Mentoring Relationships

In this workshop, participants will learn how to navigate and grow their mentoring relationships, learn positive communication strategies for maximizing the mentor-mentee relationship and success, and learn to constructively address conflict or challenges within a mentoring relationship. Activities will include completion of a mentoring compatibility framework/inventory, review of the mentoring contract or agreement, and overview of relational communication and tips on mentor-mentee trust-building, and a panel on mentor-mentee relationship building. Completion of Mentoring Matters: Identifying Your Mentoring Needs recommended.

90 minutes | Next available session: February 15, 2021. Registration coming soon!

Mentoring Matters: the CIRCLES Group Mentorship Model

Designed by the Graduate College, the CIRCLES Mentor Training Program provides a flexible group mentorship framework for academic units and graduate student groups or organizations. Attendees will learn how they can augment their unit or team’s mentoring, community- and affinity-building and student support efforts.  

30 minutes | Available Spring 2021.