The Center for Teaching & Learning and the Graduate School's Inclusive Research Mentoring (IRM) micro-credential prepares graduate student instructors/mentors, postdoctoral scholars, faculty and staff to enhance their academic mentoring in research environments. Our program is based on the CIMER mentoring curriculum, and provides participants with skills and knowledge to mentor student scholars and less experienced members of their research team. Participants are required to complete the following requirements: mentor self-assessment, eight 90-minute CIMER-based training workshops (12 hours), three DEI workshops offered through the Center for Teaching & Learning, the CU Dialogues program, or other offerings across campus, and a post-program self-reflection. Faculty participants additionally will have the option to participate in an external mentor assessment and develop advising agreements with mentees. Other participants will participate in a campus mentoring initiative.
After completing this micro-credential, participants will be able to:
Learners will benefit from having the opportunity to improve their mentoring skills. The CIMER curriculum is based on self-actualization and knowing where to find resources and improve mentor practices. This thus enables scholars to continually improve their mentoring skills, even beyond the micro-credential training period.
Graduate students and postdocs will benefit from this training by improving their own level of mentoring skills both on the CU Boulder campus, as mentors of undergraduate research students, as well as in their next career stage. This could be beneficial both within and outside of careers in higher education, as mentorship experience and expertise is increasingly valued in job searches.
All learners will be immersed in a cohort of scholars who value mentorship.
Tasks to Completion:
- Participating in all eight of the CIMER based training modules offered jointly by the Center for Teaching & Learning and the graduate school.
- Substitutions can be made on a case-by-case basis.
- Participating in three DEI-focused or CU Dialogues workshops
- These can be fulfilled by multiple campus offerings, including those from the Graduate School, CTL, ODECE, OVA, OIEC, CISC, or outside organizations, including CIRTL.
- Mentor self-assessment
- This will be completed both before and after participating in the workshops and modules.
- Post-program self-reflection
- Upon completion of the workshops and training modules, the participants will perform a structured reflection as part of a more comprehensive self-reflection with the aim of future mentoring growth.
- Faculty to develop advising agreements with mentees
- All mentors will be required to develop mentor agreements with at least one of their mentors, with support from CTL or grad school teachers.
- Grad students to participate in an official campus mentorship program or participate in a community mentorship program. Provide proof/documentation that you have met or communicated with your mentee a minimum of six times per academic year.
- Exit survey completed