National Mentoring Community


Mentors

Studying physics can be a pretty solitary experience for some — especially for students who don’t "see" themselves in the culture of a physics department. Having someone who watches out for them, provides advice, gives guidance, points them toward the appropriate resources, and just listens to them can make the difference between success and the student deciding physics is just not for them.

As mentors, you have access to information, resources, and a life of experiences in the discipline that can be a tremendous aid to students. Though there are many best practices for mentors, perhaps the most important are to care about your mentees and help open doors to their success.

Here are some of the benefits of becoming a mentor in the National Mentoring Community and some of the responsibilities of mentors in this program:

Benefits:

  1. Travel support to bring mentors and mentees all across the country together at a national gathering where students can attend workshops on professional development topics and mentors can share best practices for mentoring undergraduates.
  2. National level support and recognition of the importance of mentoring as a critical component in promoting student academic advancement.
  3. Mentees will receive a free one-year membership in the APS.
  4. Future opportunities for outstanding mentors to be recognized and honored.  
  5. Future opportunities for mentors to recognize outstanding students who have achieved notable academic or professional goals.  
  6. Future scholarships for students with financial need. Mentors will be able to advocate for students at risk of not completing their physics degree due to financial need.
  7. And, most importantly, by supporting students through a formal mentoring relationship, mentors will help address the significant disparity in educational achievement for underrepresented minority students.

Responsibilities:

  1. Identify one or more mentees and invite them to register with the APS NMC program. Choose students as early in their academic studies as possible.
  2. Meet with your mentees on a regular basis to help them develop professionally as a physicist, to discuss career or educational plans, to share resources to help them through difficulties, and to work through next steps.
  3. Provide a brief report on each mentee’s progress once per year
  4. Provide feedback to APS on ways to improve the program.

Questions? Feedback? Contact NMC@aps.org

NMC Events

NMC Lunch Meetup at SESAPS
Thursday, November 4, 2022
12:00 p.m. CT

The NMC is hosting a lunch meetup at SESAPS and we hope to see all NMC mentors and mentees who are located within APS's southeastern region there.

The NMC is providing coupon codes to waive registration fees for current NMC mentees interested in attending SESAPS. To access this coupon code, email nmc@aps.org. The NMC is also providing travel support for NMC Mentees who are attending SESAPS.

This is the first of many in-person regional meetups that the NMC is hosting for mentors and mentees, so be on the lookout to see when we'll be coming to your region!

NMC Mentor Meetup: Recruiting Mentees
Wednesday, November 16, 2022
6:00 - 7:00 p.m. ET

Attend this virtual event via Zoom to network with other mentors, share mentoring strategies, and receive tips on how to recruit mentees.
Registration

NMC Mentor

Become a Mentor

Use your APS web account to register. Don't have an APS web account? Create one here.

For questions, please contact nmc@aps.org.

Testimonials from Mentors

I love the themed reminder emails and the sense of being part of a larger community.

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...I think that the program is very useful. Personally, it helped me to understand the issues the students are facing, and an opportunity to help minority students on a one-on-one basis.