Thriving in Graduate School with Peer Mentoring

Throughout the past few months, Core Programs has sent out newsletters offering wellness, intellectual, and professional development strategies to help you thrive during—and beyond—graduate school. As part of our continued efforts to connect you with ideas and resources that support you in being your whole self, we dedicate this newsletter to the topic of peer mentorship.

Who is a graduate peer mentor? What do they do? Why is connecting with a peer mentor critical to your success? We looked toward the insights and wisdom of several experienced graduate student mentors by organizing an event called Thriving in Graduate School with Peer Mentoring in November.

Here is what they had to say:

A peer mentor draws from their authentic voice as an experienced graduate student to listen and connect with you on a human level.
A peer mentor opens a space for the mentee to drive the mentoring relationship in terms of frequency of meetings, what to talk and not talk about, and any goal setting.
A peer mentor does not try to be your best friend or counselor and encourages you to grow a mentoring and support team of faculty, colleagues, and when needed and appropriate, licensed mental health care professionals.
A peer mentor is not a problem solver, yet will reflect back to you potential options and refer you to campus and community resources.
A peer mentor has “gone through it too” and you do not need to put on your best face when seeking peer support.
A peer mentor acknowledges that while all grads and professional students go through imposter syndrome, it is experienced differently based on race, gender, class, sexuality, nationality, and ability.
A peer mentor shares wisdom on cultivating healthy norms (validating small and big milestones) versus unhealthy norms (“the comparison game”) in graduate school.
A peer mentor appreciates and learns from the knowledge and experiences of their mentees.

Core Programs extends a warm thank you to the following grad students who participated in the Thriving in Graduate School with Peer Mentoring event, held on November 12, 2015.

Julie Cass, Physics Peer Mentoring Program
Federico Fabbri, Grads Guiding Grads (G3)
Sarah Vorpahl, Women in Chemical Sciences
Ben Wiselogle, Husky United Military Veterans (HUMV)

Addressing Difference and Growing Your Support

Are any of these thoughts affecting you?

“I should understand that theory or concept already!”
“If I speak up to say I don’t understand something, I’ll look stupid in class.”
“I’m not participating the way everyone else is, so there must be something wrong with me.”
“Where is my community?”

Every graduate and professional student experiences doubt, anxiety or critical self-talk due to the demands of their educational programs. At the same time, there is no universal graduate student experience, and the long-held idea that you’ll automatically be successful if you just work hard enough is a myth. The reality is not everyone enters graduate school with the same access to social, cultural, professional and financial resources and not everyone is treated with equity. This is especially true if you are a first-generation graduate student, person of color, woman, person with visible or invisible disabilities, international student, or a member of the LGBT, Queer or Trans community (one can also embody multiple, intersecting identities and backgrounds).

Sometimes asking for help can feel like taking a risk—that it calls attention to your difference and to your vulnerability. It’s no wonder then that asking for support on campus can either feel truly unfamiliar or feel like a daunting task for many.

Core Programs’ mission is to promote an environment where all graduate and professional students can thrive and to suggest strategies that encourage students to seek out the support they need to reach their intellectual, professional and interpersonal goals. We also see our work as aligned with larger, institutional efforts to address the complexities of difference at the University of Washington.

Here are some tips to help you remind yourself that you belong here and that your work is important:

When you feel you don’t belong. Also known as imposter syndrome, it’s the persistent, internalized belief that “you’re not smart enough, competent enough, or productive enough” to be in graduate school, and that peers, faculty members, and your department chair are somehow going to find out. Notice when these thoughts come up and stop yourself. As communication studies scholar Dr. Felicia Harris states, “The nagging voice that says I don’t belong discredits everything I’ve done to get to a certain point. Pursuing an advanced degree is an admirable and challenging feat, and I remind myself of this by celebrating every milestone.” Milestones can be getting your reading done, mustering the nerve to ask a professor for their mentorship, or gaining teaching, research, or career experience. Read more from Dr. Harris.

Mentoring needs. There are numerous reasons why you seek out mentors in graduate and professional school. The obvious ones are to develop intellectual and professional relationships with faculty advisors whose research or career backgrounds resonate with you. Sometimes a single mentor can support you in multiple ways. Yet it also turns out that we often need a mentor network for different dimensions of our lives. Start with an inventory and see where your needs are being met and where you may have gaps. Some dimensions include:

Academic — Specific skills or techniques, new knowledge domains
Career — Sponsorship, exposure, coaching, protection, challenging
Psychosocial — Role modeling, acceptance and confirmation, counseling, friendship
Values — Worldviews, belief systems, politics

Grow your support. In our first fall quarter newsletter, we encouraged you to get to know the campus community by attending departmental and welcome events to make meaningful connections with peers, staff and faculty. Other ways to grow your support system are identifying those safe people you can confide in when things feel tough. These can be close friends, loved ones, members of your faith-based or spiritual community, and even a qualified mental health professional (there’s no shame in seeking counseling).

Jaye Sablan & Kelly Edwards
Core Programs, The Graduate School

Additional Resources

What Influences Your Mentoring Needs, UW Graduate School

Finding and Developing Your Teaching Experience

Many of you want to gain teaching skills but are unable to find TA positions. This doesn’t mean there are no options. If you’re considering a teaching-focused career or a future academic position, develop a portfolio by engaging yourself in a variety of hands-on and observational experiences. Seeking out multiple, even incremental, ways to gain and learn teaching experience will give you clarity on whether or not it is the right career path for you.

We acknowledge that you are busy, that is always a given. Yet we also know that making time for your professional development, even if only for a few hours a month or quarter, is critical to your continued success before earning your graduate degree. Having teaching experiences in your back pocket will give you a leg up in the job market if you eventually decide to apply for academic positions.

Here are a few strategies:

Let faculty and departmental administrators know you are interested in teaching. Getting on their radar is important as they can connect you with a range of opportunities when they come up (often on short notice—for example, when an instructor is out sick and needs coverage).
Volunteer to give guest presentations in a course taught by your advisor, mentor or colleague.
Apply for a teaching fellowship through the Program for Interdisciplinary Pedagogy (PIP).
Volunteer at UW programs like the Genome Sciences Education Outreach program or a local non-profit to gain experience in teaching and tutoring.
Inquire about the possibility of Teaching Assistantships outside of your graduate program of study. Utilize your networks and ask for TA job referrals from thesis advisors or dissertation committee members.
Attend a Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) workshop or event. Also check out their extensive repository of teaching resources.
Attend a Community College Careers and Networking reception organized by Core Programs.
Learn about teaching opportunities at local community colleges by contacting departmental deans and faculty directly to set up informational interviews and campus visits.

Adapted from the UW Center for Teaching & Learning’s “Ways to Continue Developing Your Teaching Strategies for Graduate Students & Post-doctoral Fellows” resource sheet.

Peer Mentoring: Connect With Your Community

Core Programs staff enjoyed meeting many of you at the recent Husky Sunrise event on Rainier Vista lawn (700 new and returning graduate students attended!). A highlight of the event was witnessing graduate students foster community—through formal and informal conversations—with peers from across the disciplines. And it doesn’t have to stop there.

We encourage you to continue seeking out these important connections in order to grow your peer support network. This network can come from within your program and from across campus and should comprise of peers whom you look up to, gain insight from, and build trust with.

Peer mentors can become a cornerstone to your graduate experience and take many forms:

A peer mentor is familiar with departmental culture, faculty, and expectations and provides suggestions that help you acclimate to your program.
A peer mentor is someone who shares similar life experiences based on race, gender, sexuality, class, ability and citizenship.
A peer mentor offers insight into balancing academic, professional, and interpersonal responsibilities.
A peer mentor points you to on and off campus resources. They can also give you the lowdown on local eateries, hangouts, and events in your area and encourage you to avoid isolation.
A peer mentor is a graduate student outside of your department who acts as a neutral sounding board.

Just like your faculty mentoring team, you can always have more than one peer mentor. Getting and staying connected to others, and seeking guidance and input when you need it, is key to your success in graduate school. To enhance your informal networks, Core Programs is partnering with the Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS) on a new service called Grads Guiding Grads (G3)–a peer mentoring system available to you on a one-time or longer-term basis.

G3 can be a place to bring questions you do not feel safe talking about within your own department, or can be a gateway to finding other students or organizations across campus where like-minded students are building support and community with one another.

Stay tuned for the next recruitment of new peer mentors coming this fall!