Mentoring

Acknowledging the Work of Outstanding GSIs

Teaching in Berkeley’s academic departments as a Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) is an invaluable professional development opportunity. Being recognized as one of the University’s finest is an outstanding achievement.

Fiona M. Doyle, Vice Provost for Graduate Studies and Dean of the Graduate Division

Mentorship

Supporting and rewarding excellent mentoring is a Berkeley priority.

Mentorship in the Social Sciences — 4/23/2018

Faculty mentorship is a key ingredient in the development of our graduate and professional student researchers. The recent “Nature Research: Health of Research Groups” symposium at Berkeley identified the importance of supporting PIs in their roles as mentors for research … Continued

Fiona M. Doyle, Vice Provost for Graduate Studies and Dean of the Graduate Division

Competitions and Celebrations

Hear about your peers’ research — and applaud the faculty who inspire and mentor our graduate students!

Mentored Research Award — 3/5/2018

The Mentored Research Award gives academically promising graduate students an opportunity to conduct pre-doctoral research while developing and strengthening relationships with faculty advisers. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents whose backgrounds, life experiences, and/or work contribute to diversity. … Continued

APASD Circles of Support Program Seeks Grad Student Mentors

Asian Pacific American Student Development (APASD) announces the Circles of Support program! This is an opportunity for you to help support undergraduate students and alumni in learning more about graduate school. The populations we hope to serve are: Asian American and … Continued

Getting the Mentoring You Need

The success of mentoring relationships depends not only on faculty but also on you as the mentee. Check out a dozen specific steps you can take to get the mentoring you need.

2016 SMART team

Developing Mentoring Skills

Knowing how to effectively mentor students and junior colleagues is a vital skill for graduate students preparing for diverse careers, whether within or beyond academia.

American Bar Foundation Fellowships — 12/1/2015

The American Bar Foundation (ABF) is dedicated to advancing justice through rigorous research on the law, legal practices, and the law’s impact on our society.  Located in Chicago, ABF is the nation’s leading research institute for the empirical study of law. The … Continued

Call for Applications to SMART Program for Summer 2015 — 11/24/2014

Student Mentoring and Research Teams (SMART), a 10-week mentoring program administered by the Graduate Division during the summer, links undergraduate students with graduate students on a research project to facilitate professional development and mentoring skills. During the fall semester, 20 graduate … Continued

Faculty honored at Graduate Mentoring Awards ceremony

The seventh annual Graduate Mentoring Awards ceremony honored members of the faculty selected for their outstanding commitment to help graduate students succeed academically, professionally, and personally.

SMART participants, Summer 2012

This could be the start of something big

Message from the Dean: What do the afterglow of the Big Bang and the influence of facial hair on 19th-century American presidential politics have in common? The new SMART program, being piloted this summer with graduate students mentoring undergrads in hands-on research.

The key to totally surprising a mentor: no leaks

So far, nobody’s let the cat out of the bag, so the surprise has been total in every case. Despite Berkeley’s long tradition of protest and California’s reputation for spontaneity, faculty members here simply don’t expect to be interrupted by outsiders while they’re teaching a class.  When it dawns on them that the invasion brings unexpected but happy news for them personally, decorum goes out the window.

Andrew Szeri

Mentoring comes of age at Berkeley

Not all aspects of a dean’s job bring smiles; it’s hardly possible to please everyone all the time.  That said, there are events during the year that irresistibly bring a smile to my face, and make a lot of people … Continued

Have you ever thought about mentoring an undergrad?

The ASUC Undergraduate/Graduate Mentorship Program (UGMP) provides an opportunity for graduate students to mentor undergraduate students considering the pursuit of an advanced academic degree. The graduate student will offer advice and answers to the undergraduate who is interested in gaining more knowledge about his/her academic field of interest, the graduate school process, or just about future academic endeavors.

OGSI winner celebrating

Outstanding GSIs and their mentors are honored: a quick preview

Outstanding GSIs, and mentors of GSIs, were honored in droves over the past few weeks.  We’ll be saying more, in detail and with pictures, in the near future, but meanwhile here are the categories — at least those which fall under the umbrella of the Graduate Division (and, in one case, its partner, the Graduate Assembly).

Reminder: to honor your mentors, nominate them now!

Every year, the Graduate Division and the Graduate Assembly team up to call public attention to the exemplary and caring assistance individual faculty members have provided, above and beyond the call of duty, to their students. As the culmination of … Continued

Photo of Ellie Schindelman

Ellie Schindelman

Earlier, the “prize patrol” had (also with GSI connivance) snuck into a computer-lab setting on the third floor of Haviland Hall, where public health lecturer Ellie Schindelman was team-teaching a class on using video for public health leadership and advocacy.

2009 Sarlo Award

Two Superb Mentors Get Their Due at Berkeley

For the last three years, there’s been a new way to honor faculty mentors at Berkeley. Called the Sarlo Distinguished Graduate Student Mentoring Award, it honors faculty for all the ways they help graduate students — not only in research, … Continued

The Importance of Mentoring

Following the adoption of this ‘best practices’ document by the Academic Senate in 2006, Graduate Division sought external support to establish a mentoring award — and that effort has been successful!

Rewarding mentors, the academy’s unsung secret weapon

The afternoon of April 22 was overcast and gloomy, with rain predicted. But inside the McCollum Room in Tan Hall, the atmosphere was toasty from warm feelings. Five faculty members, accompanied by colleagues and students who nominated them and friends … Continued

What makes the wheel go around

When I was a graduate student, I was a teaching assistant (more than once) for a very inspiring mentor, a man named Manos Vakalo. His teams of teaching assistants had remarkable autonomy. He never questioned a grade we gave, and he always treated us as respected equals. In retrospect, we could be dumb at times; I remember bringing beer to a critique for our undergraduates, and Manos simply raising an eyebrow in reprimand. That, however, was enough. He had remarkable expressions, every one of which I think I could still imitate perfectly today, nearly 20 years later.

2008 Mentoring Awards Announcement

We are pleased to announce the 2008 recipients of the Sarlo Distinguished Graduate Student Mentoring Awards. These awards have been made possible by a grant from the Sarlo Foundation of the Jewish Community Endowment Fund. They are administered by the Graduate Division in collaboration with the Graduate Council of the Academic Senate.