ESPM Buddy Program

The ESPM Graduate Student Association runs a “buddy program” that pairs first year graduate students with upper-level graduate student "mentors". The goal of this program is to help incoming students navigate the ups and downs of the first year in ESPM: choosing courses, advisor relationships, research planning, work-life balance and moral support. We hope to foster relationships across labs and cohorts that creates a supportive and connected ESPM environment for graduate students! 

How do I participate?: Incoming cohorts are assigned a buddy mentor. Buddy mentors can be at any stage of their graduate career, but must not be graduating before May of the year they participate. GSA will send out a form in late May/early June through which current grad students can sign up to be a buddy mentor.

Who’s my buddy?: All participants are asked to fill out a brief informational survey which we use to pair a first year with a mentor. We try to mix it up and pair people with different research interests!

Time commitment?: Approximately 1x/month informal meeting with your buddy, along with more frequent email communication. We will also have 1-2 socials over the semester for buddy mentors and mentees. 

Buddy Mentors: Please see ESPM Buddy Program Community Guidelines and ESPM Buddy Program suggested conversation topics.