Heres a super long one, but bear with us and this call for mentors! Dear Grad Students of Art History, This year we are rolling out a simple program of outreach aimed at enhancing the academic experience of our new undergraduate students. The Art History Mentoring Initiative is a simple program that offers freshmen and new transfer students in Art History an easy way to connect with a faculty mentor and a graduate student mentor during their first year. Here’s how it works: 1. Graduate students (PhD or MA) who are willing to take part as a Mentors for a new student, please reply to Ann Merkle or Jeannie McKetta by e-mail (or in a message via FB to GSAHA!) (a simple note is enough) by Thursday, September 25. Traci Laird and Louis Waldman will be compiling a list of faculty members who have expressed the desire to serve as Mentors. 2. A few days before the Undergrad Student Meet and Greet on October 1, Elana Logsdon will e-mail each of this year’s 20 new Art History majors the names and e-mails of one faculty member and one chosen graduate student with whom they have been randomly paired up. 3. Each Mentor makes the following two commitments: 1.) Within about a month, to invite their Mentee to come for a cup of tea or informal chat (faculty will generally do this in our offices, grad students may choose the TA office or a more informal location on campus). The Mentee is free to accept, decline, or ignore the invitation—we just create the opportunity for them to take if they want it. There is no agenda for these informal chats or coffee meetings, nor is there any obligation on to follow up on them. We are simply reaching out in order to build bridges among new students, grad students, and faculty in order to enable new Art History majors to take full advantage of the resources available to them and to help them find a sense of community and belonging. 2.) During the mentorship year, each Mentee is always welcome to contact their Mentor in order to ask questions, discuss their work, or simply check in with a senior colleague who knows them as individuals and has an investment in their success. 4. It should work out that each participating graduate student gets hooked up with one new undergrad per year, so the Mentoring Initiative will be anything but onerous. On average, it will mean one coffee or informal chat per Mentor member each year, in some cases not even that. But it is essential that everyone who signs up to be a Mentor is completely serious about following up on their commitment. Some benefits of the Art History Mentoring Initiative: 1. Very little work to organize. 2. Someone in the department will know all, or nearly all, of our entering class on a personal basis. 3. When we need to nominate undergrads for awards, we’ll have a solid base of knowledge from which to work. 4. We’ll be able to identify the brightest students and guide them towards the Honors Program and other valuable academic opportunities. 5. We’ll help create a sense of community among undergrads and help them bond as a cohort, which will be beneficial to them academically as well as personally. If you have any questions about how this is going to work, please don’t hesitate to contact Louis Waldman. And again, everyone who is willing to be paired up with a new undergrad student this year as a Mentor, please email Ann Merkle or Jeannie McKetta a quick note by this Thursday September 25, or just message GSAHA here on Facebook! All best, Jeannie McKetta, Ann Merkle, and Louis Waldman
Posted on: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 21:05:31 +0000
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