The Div. 20 Mentor Matching Program recruited a new cohort of 20 mentors and 48 mentees in January 2021. Currently organized by Yin Liu, PhD, and Rowena Gomez, PhD, the main goal of this program is to expand the professional networks of students and early career psychologists with interests in aging by connecting them to more established professionals who are affiliated with a different institution and can provide career advice and guidance. Undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows/associates, and junior faculty/clinicians who are members of the division are eligible to participate as mentees. Division members who have completed their graduate and postdoctoral training are eligible to serve as mentors. Mentors and mentees are matched on the basis of aging-related interests and mentoring preferences. Each mentor-mentee match commits to a minimum of one 30- to 60-minute phone or videoconference meeting during the mentoring period, which currently runs from February through May 2021. Mentors and mentees are encouraged to follow up with one another as they see fit; however, the nature and frequency of follow-ups should be negotiated between the mentor and mentee.
Since the Mentor Matching Program started in 2018, a total of 73 mentors and 117 mentees have been recruited to participate. This has resulted in 101 mentor-mentee matches, with many participants receiving multiple matches upon request. Initial feedback has been highly positive overall from both mentors and mentees. We reached out to mentors and mentees who participated in this program last year. Specifically, we asked them about what they gained from their experience in the mentoring program and what they will take with them after the program ends. One common theme among the feedback was how beneficial multiple perspectives in mentoring can be. This sentiment was echoed in faculty-student matches as well as with mentors who were paired with junior faculty mentees. Uniquely, mentor Dr. Ian McDonough and mentee Anastasia Canell both commented on the benefits of having a mentoring relationship in which both individuals are from different programs (i.e., PysD-PhD pairings, nursing school-PhD pairings), highlighting that there are nuanced differences in approach between the programs that can inform geropsychological research and professional identity. There was also a sense of gratitude for the shared ideals and thoughts related to initiatives in the field, as highlighted by mentor Dr. Lisa Hollis-Sawyer. Notably, there were challenges to mentoring related to the COVID-19 pandemic. One mentor, Dr. Claudia Haase, highlighted being uncertain of how best to mentor because of the uncertainty of the future for the field following the pandemic.
For more information about the Mentor Matching Program, please contact Yin Liu, PhD, or Rowena Gomez. PhD.