Seeking mentors for the 2018 Early Career Mentorship Program
Call for ESA Mentors!
Early Career Mentoring Program
Ecological Society of America Meeting, New Orleans, 2018
If you are interested in becoming a potential ESA Mentor and will be attending the 2018 meeting in New Orleans, please fill out our Google form by April 16, 2018.
Description:
Conferences provide unique opportunities for biologists to interact with others in their field; however, these opportunities are rarely structured to promote meaningful interactions between the next generation of integrative ecologists and more senior scientists. Access to strong mentors both within and outside of their main institution is critical for early career ecologist support and for gaining the necessary skills to become a good mentor and to move towards the next career stages. Our semi-formal mentoring program pairs early career ecologists – advanced graduate students (within 1 year of graduating) and recent post-graduates (within 3 years of obtaining their degree) – with established ecologists (across career pathways) to establish mentoring relationships, structured around interactions the week of the ESA Annual Meeting and beyond.
Mentors Needed:
Volunteer mentors across all career pathways (e.g., research, teaching, government, nonprofit) will be asked to interact with early career ecologists seeking mentorship in professional development and work-life challenges. Mentors will be placed in a mentoring “pool”. If paired with a specific mentee, mentors will be asked to:
1) Get to know the mentee a little before the meeting- an informal phone conversation, emails etc
1) attend a mentee’s ESA talk and to provide positive, but critical, evaluation and advice on
presentation and communication,
2) designate quality time (at least one hour) for one-on-one interactions with the mentee,
3) be open-minded towards discussing broader work-life issues, if the mentee wishes, and to
4) be open towards continuing to provide the mentee with opportunities to expand their mentoring or collaboration networks after the meeting has ended.
We are seeking mentors who will be attending at least 3 full days of the ESA meeting and are strongly encouraged to participate in one or more events aimed at the broader early career ecologist group (e.g., a mentor-mentee mixer, workshops or discussions on professional development; specific events TBA).
For more information:
Email: Early Career Ecologist Section (earlycareer@nullesa.org)
Twitter: @ESA_EarlyCareer
Website: https://ecologicalsocietyofamerica.org/earlycareer/