Student mentorship program

Learning, growing, and achieving together

One of the goals of the USDA SatRAP program is to increase student engagement and outreach, both in the ag water space, and beyond. The Mentorship Program will serve as one aspect of that goal, using an active, hands-on, cross-disciplinary approach to build capacity, launch careers, and maintain communities. Through close mentor-mentee collaboration, as well as ample opportunities for mentees to engage with other professionals and each other, the USDA SatRAP program hopes to serve as a platform to support each student's academic, professional, and personal growth.

 

SatRAP mentee cohort
Supporting graduate and undergraduate students' academic, professional, and personal growth.
Meet our students 
Program info and events
Coming soon!

Building capacity

Using the vast networks of our lead and partner institutions, the Mentoring Program is designed to expand the educational, practical, and professional experience of participants through:

  • Professional and educational networking
  • Organizational skills workshops
  • Technical training
  • In-person and virtual meeting spaces to discuss, practice, and receive feedback on a variety of topics

Launching careers

The goal is for this program to help launch the careers of many students and early career researchers who bring critical abilities and skills to sustainability and systems research, while tackling any number of current and future problems. To help with career advancement, the program plans to:

  • Provide monthly mentor check-ins
  • Encourage and support conference and meeting attendance
  • Host Brown-Bag informational sessions
  • Provide access to professional societies and networks
  • Promote and support presentations at professional and educational events

Maintaining communities

Research and learning, while exciting and important work, cannot have a long-term and sustainable positive impact without the practical aspect of community extension work. To that end, we will work with our students so that they come away from this program with hands-on community experience by:

  • Organizing cross-campus visits
  • Participating in HS/Community College curriculum development
  • Representing and promoting the SatRAP program at events (career days, FFA, 4H, etc.)
  • Serving as campus student ambassadors
  • Working with their mentors and other cohort members to design and participate in other extension activities