Get Involved
Some Field Guide mentees and mentors on a trip to learn about internships and opportunities in
field-based research at Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve!
Undergraduates:
Field Guides is open to any undergraduate at the University of Minnesota interested in ecology-related fields* at any stage in their career. There are two main ways for undergraduates to get involved with Field Guides:
Join our mailing list for access to monthly seminars as well as a monthly newsletter containing opportunities and job openings.
Be paired with a graduate student mentor** to work 1:1 towards personal goals each semester. Mentor-mentee matches are chosen based on shared research interests, as well as any shared identities (BIPOC, LGBTQ, first-gen, etc...)
Mentors can help you....
Discover your place in academia
Find research opportunities on campus/UROPs
Apply to summer jobs/opportunities
Explore potential careers
Think about post-grad opportunities
Prepare for graduate school applications
UNDERGRAD SIGN UP: CLICK HERE
* Our mentors do not have experience with health-related sciences. If you are interested in pre-health and human-centric biology research, please check out the UMN Pre-Health Center.
** Please note that mentor-mentee pairings occur at the start of each semester. You are welcome to sign-up any time for access to our mailing list and seminars, but mentor opportunities will only occur during the mentor match periods in September and January of each academic year.
graduate STUDENTS:
We are ALWAYS looking for new graduate student mentors to join our team! Mentors can be graduate students (PhD or Masters) in any program or department at the University of Minnesota.
Since our undergrads are typically interested in ecology-related fields, we are particularly looking for grad students that would be able to offer guidance and advice in fields broadly related to ecology, evolution, behavior, animal science, entomology, plant biology, microbiology, computational biology, conservation biology, etc...
Graduate mentors are typically placed with 1-2 undergraduate mentees that share similar research interests and/or personal identities to meet with periodically throughout the semester*.
Meeting frequencies are flexible and determined by each mentoring pair. Many of our undergrads are looking for help finding research positions on campus, applying to graduate school, or just wanting to get to know a graduate student. When possible, our mentors continue to work with the same mentees subsequent semesters.
Mentors with Field Guides also have opportunities to increase their mentoring skill-set.
Field Guides hosts 1-2 seminars each semester led by post-docs and UMN faculty focused on professional development and leadership skills for graduate students. Mentors in the Field Guides program will have exclusive access to seminars as well as online resources.
GRADUATE MENTOR SIGN UP: CLICK HERE
* Please note that mentor-mentee pairings occur at the start of each semester. You are welcome to sign-up any time however the mentor-match periods will occur in September and January.