About the LGBTQQI Undergraduate Student Mentoring Program

By Alan Douglas

Stanford Pride Board Member

Stanford Alumni Mentoring (SAM) needs you!

Stanford Alumni Mentoring is an established program of the Career Development Center. Undergraduate students review Alumni Resumes seeking to choose a mentor for career guidance, advice and advocacy. Mentors assist undergraduates gain a deeper understanding of career goals and insight into the professional real world. To learn more, access: https://mentoring.stanford.edu/index.php?content/about

At the SAM homepage, explore program details and learn how to sign-up. When you do, please take care to detail your personal and professional information so that students will discover who you are as a mentoring resource.

SAM is managed by Marlene Scherer Stern, Career Networking Program Manager, Stanford University Career Development Center.

As a Stanford History and Law School graduate, I have mentored 5 undergraduates over the years. My experience with undergraduate mentoring evidences there are many students wanting to connect with LGBTQQI alumni to learn about and discuss all of the real world issues confronting them. Some students will search for you choosing a mentor. Once chosen, you have the opportunity to accept or reject the matchup.

SAM provides a great opportunity to stay connected with Stanford and the LGBTQQI community at Stanford. Mentor/Mentee matchups and Mentoring will commence Fall Quarter.

About the LGBTQ Graduate Student Mentoring Program

By Inge Hansen, Psy.D.

Vaden Health Center

My name is Inge Hansen, and I work at Stanford’s Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) as a psychologist. One of my primary passions is working for social justice, especially for the LGBTQ student communities on campus. Without question, both undergraduate and graduate students who identify as LGBTQ are faced with a number of challenges, such as isolation, discrimination, and family stress, as they pursue their academic goals. Stanford offers a rich array of resources to LGBTQ-identified undergraduates including QuAD, CASA, SOSAS, the Firetruck House space, plus a number of voluntary student groups. Although these resources are available to the graduate student community, they are less suited, and thus less utilized, by this population. Graduate students are often primarily connected with their own departments, and have concerns particular to their own stages of personal and professional development.

I considered resources that would feel relevant for graduate students, and came up with the idea of an LGBTQ mentoring program. LGBTQ alumni are in a unique position to support and mentor graduate students as they navigate their way through their Stanford academic career and into the workplace. Our program, which piloted in spring 2011, matches interested LGBTQ graduate students with alumni who graduated from the same department or are in a similar field. The student-alumnus relationship will allow for both emotional support and career networking. For students, it is an opportunity to get their concerns addressed in an open and honest way by people who have been there. For alumni, it is a chance to give back to Stanford through mentoring and attending scheduled social/networking events. I hope you will consider getting involved in this vital program.

For more information or to volunteer as a mentor, email Inge at lgbtcounseling@stanford.edu.

 

About qSTEM

Stanford qSTEM connects LGBT professionals in science, technology,engineering and mathematics with students for professional development and networking. You can be a valuable resource to students as they look for employment and prepare for their transition into industry. At mixers and other events, talk with students about the LGBT community at your workplace and meet up-and-coming LGBT Stanford students in STEM fields.

Additionally, qSTEM establishes connections between academia and industry which can strengthen our community as a whole, and provide an interesting platform for interdisciplinary projects and discussions.

Please fill out this short questionnaire if you're interested in participating.

For more information, please contact Brendan Hamel-Bissell.