The new year’s first Mentoring at Critical Transitions (MCT) event on January 22 will feature UC Berkeley’s Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Dr. Claude Steele. He will address stereotype threat within the context of mentoring graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. The event will also introduce the new MCT Fellowship, a competitive award program for faculty and their graduate student mentees. This MCT event will take place at the University Conference Center, Ballrooms A - C, from noon to 2:00 p.m. Please register.

Sponsored by Graduate Studies, the MCT program aims to support the graduate student mentor-mentee relationship through interactive workshops and events.

Dr. Steele will address stereotype threat, a concept that has been the focus of much of his research and publishing during his academic career. Stereotype threat examines how people from different groups, who are subjected to stereotyping, can have quite different experiences in the same situation. This concept has been used to understand group differences in performances ranging from the intellectual to the athletic. For example, if a student perceives that s/he is being stereotyped for their race/ethnicity, gender, etc., they may perform lower than when tested under neutral, controlled conditions. Stereotype threat can help faculty understand the experiences of graduate students from different groups and how to take steps to strengthen the mentor-mentee relationship. Steele’s recent book, Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Cues to How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We can Do, will be available for purchase and Dr. Steele will be signing books following his talk.

“Right now is a sensitive time with historical events. This seminar is coming at the perfect time,” says Josephine Moreno, one of two Graduate Diversity Officers in Graduate Studies. “Hopefully the university community will draw upon Dr. Steele’s work to be better mentors for our graduate students, particularly from diverse and disadvantaged backgrounds.”

In addition to hosting Dr. Steele, this upcoming MCT event will also be a chance for faculty to learn more about the new MCT Fellowship. The award program will grant up to five $10,000 awards to faculty to support one or more graduate students who are the recipients’ mentees.

“We are excited because this is the first time the MCT Fellowship will be offered and we’ve had very strong turnout for the MCT events this year,” says Moreno.

To be eligible to apply for an MCT fellowship, faculty must attend at least three of the five MCT sessions during the 2014-15 academic year. The MCT awards ask faculty to work in coordination with graduate student mentees to submit a proposal to enhance graduate student mentorship.

“We want faculty and graduate students to be more involved in mentorship and to think about it on a regular basis,” says Moreno. “We encourage [faculty] to be thoughtful and to apply these ideas and skills to mentoring our graduate students.”

Photo credit L.A. Cicero, Stanford University