Diversity Strengthens Us
Our commitment to inclusive excellence enriches the research, scholarship, and creativity of our graduate community.
We advance student and postdoctoral success by:
- Supporting student groups that create welcoming spaces for underrepresented students.
- Providing professional development and mentoring training.
- Encouraging faculty mentoring efforts to strengthen mentor-mentee relationships and improve recruitment and retention of underrepresented students and postdoctoral scholars.
- Supporting these initiatives through the Graduate Center for Inclusive Mentoring (GCIM).
CSU’s Principles of Community guide our efforts and we uphold these principles through all Graduate School efforts.
Mentoring Excellence
We are committed to strengthening the graduate community through robust mentoring initiatives. Mentoring is a crucial and defining factor in the success of graduate students. Mentoring matters — it enriches the lives of mentors and mentees on many levels!
Student Focus
Student-focused activities include helping students build a mentoring community and supporting underrepresented populations. We aim to increase awareness of access and equity for all learners and incorporate this understanding into students’ current and future mentor-mentee relationships.
Faculty Focus
The Graduate Center for Inclusive Mentoring provides leadership for faculty directed mentoring efforts such as the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER) and Mentor Well Certification. Mentoring initiatives are prioritized through the lens of access and equity. Learn more about GCIM below.
Signature Events
Graduate students, faculty, and postdocs are welcome to these events!
Subscribe to the Graduate School’s event calendar to easily find upcoming events and set automated reminders. In addition to these signature events, you will find a variety of professional development opportunities, CSU Writes offerings, and social events among our 250+ curated offerings for the graduate community.
Mentor Mondays
Each semester, we host an in-person series where participants discuss effective mentoring relationships and their critical role in the graduate community. Lunch is provided, registration is required, and each session is from Noon to 1:00 p.m.
- Feb. 3: Ethical use of generative AI by graduate students
- March 3: Cultivating a healthy and happy graduate mentoring dynamic
- April 7: Insights into the international student experience
- May 5: Building an accessible graduate experience: Addressing neurodiversity and mental health
"The Mentor Mondays are really nice because I'll meet students who are not in my area, and I'll be able to listen to what kinds of issues they're dealing with and then think about how that applies back to what I do."
Nancy Levinger
Graduate Center for Inclusive Mentoring
GCIM’s objective is to equip mentors with the expertise and resources needed to help mentees meet their goals and expectations. Faculty training is developed from Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER) training curriculum.
Faculty receive formalized training and mentor development to mentor through a lens of equity and inclusion to best support the success of graduate student and postdoc mentees.
GCIM offers:
- Mentor and mentee trainings for CSU faculty, graduate students, and postdocs.
- Graduate student centered socialization activities developed to encourage professional networks.
- Recruitment and retention activities and programs with an emphasis on graduate students from underserved populations.
- Consultative services to departments and colleges regarding graduate recruitment, retention, and professional development.
- Grants for department level training are provided as funding is available.
Student Groups
We support and provide leadership to student groups dedicated to underrepresented graduate student communities. Find graduate student affinity groups and ways to get involved here.
Graduate Peer Mentoring Program (GPMP)
The Graduate Peer Mentoring Program (GPMP) aims to foster communities of support for new and returning CSU graduate students by engaging their strengths, identities, and experiences. The program is available to all degree seeking on-campus graduate students currently enrolled in credit bearing courses. Students are required to apply and are partnered based on their application preferences such as field of study, degree compatibility, and social identities.
GCIM Mentor Well Faculty Certificate
Published evidence shows that mentoring impacts the outcomes of trainees across disciplines and career stages and that mentor education improves mentoring relationships. The Mentor Well training series is offered by GCIM and based on the Entering Mentoring curriculum developed by CIMER. It is intended for faculty mentors of graduate students, but will have useful information for mentors of all types. (In conjunction with working towards this certificate, the SMART Goals and Progression for Mentoring guide provides faculty with information, resources, and identifies levels of progression in the journey to reach the next level in their mentoring progression.) Participants who complete the full series of sessions listed below will receive a GCIM Mentor Well Certificate.
- Aligning Expectations
- Maintaining Effective Communication
- Assessing Understanding
- Promoting Independence
- Fostering Mental Health and Well-being
- Addressing Equity and Inclusion
- Fostering Professional Development
- Mentoring Capstone: Building out your Mentoring Philosophy
All seven sessions must be completed before registering for the Mentoring Capstone session.
"Because it's Mentor Well, it's about well-being of the student, not just academically, but also on the personal level."
Svetlana Olbina Tweet
GCIM Faculty
Our GCIM faculty are actively engaged in the GCIM. They prioritize mentoring marginalized students and support best practices for mentoring through the lens of DEIJ.
Graduate Peer Mentoring Program
Fosters a supportive community by matching peers from across campus who share experiences and resources and offer advice.
Mentoring Resources and Helpful Links
Admission, Enrollment, and Student Success Reports
The Graduate School in collaboration with Institutional Research (IR) launched an initiative in Spring 2021 to identify and report equity gaps at various stages of the graduate student lifecycle. The initiative aims to give the Graduate School, academic programs, and mentors data to better target interventions to improve equity and inclusion, close gaps, and support overall graduate student success.
A campus level report, college level reports, and department level reports are available to download as PDFs on the Graduate School’s Admission, Enrollment, and Student Success Reports webpage.
Graduate Student Experience Survey
The Graduate School is committed to the success of all students. To this end, the Graduate School surveys graduate students every two to three years to assess student satisfaction related to campus climate, professional development, and mentoring support. The results of our latest survey are here.
Graduate Well-Being Canvas Course
This self-paced well-being course was developed by experts to help you navigate challenges by introducing strategies to improve mental health and well-being. Students can tailor the course to their wellness needs by selecting from a variety of modules. Learn more on Canvas.
Student Task Force
The Graduate School commissioned task forces in 2016, one led by students and one by faculty, to develop white papers on mentoring. Links to the pdf documents are provided below:
Additional Resources
Downloadable resources and helpful links for the community are below.
Awards Spotlight
Advancing Education Scholarship – honoring the legacy and memory of Martin Luther King, Jr
- Annual application deadlines are announced in the Spring Semester
- Scholarship unavailable in FY 2024-2025

Jack E. Cermak Advising Award
This award recognizes excellence in academic advising. Jack E. Cermak was a Professor in Civil Engineering who endowed this award because of his strong belief in the value of academic advising.

Graduate Ram Impact

Rebecca (Becca) Windell
Pairing academic work with experiences outside the classroom goes hand-in-hand.

Justin Hudson
July 21, 2024 | By Theresa Barosh Forecasting Milky Seas Department of Atmospheric Science doctoral student and researcher Justin Hudson found a milky sea without relying on happenstance. He successfully predicted (or postdicted, more accurately) an occurrence of a milky

Nick Moon
As appearing in source.colostate.edu | April 26, 2024 | By Ben Leonard From Marine, to welder, to counselor: Outstanding Counseling and Career Development graduate uses degree to launch next stage of life After an interesting career ranging from Marine to baker,
Principles of Community
The Principles of Community support the Colorado State University mission and vision of access, research, teaching, service, and engagement. A collaborative and vibrant community is a foundation for learning, critical inquiry, and discovery. Therefore, each member of the CSU community has a responsibility to uphold these principles when engaging with one another and acting on behalf of the University.
We create and nurture inclusive environments and welcome, value and affirm all members of our community, including their various identities, skills, ideas, talents and contributions.
We are accountable for our actions and will act ethically and honestly in all our interactions.
We honor the inherent dignity of all people within an environment where we are committed to freedom of expression, critical discourse, and the advancement of knowledge.
We are responsible, individually and collectively, to give of our time, talents, and resources to promote the well-being of each other and the development of our local, regional, and global communities.
We have the right to be treated and the responsibility to treat others with fairness and equity, the duty to challenge prejudice, and to uphold the laws, policies and procedures that promote justice in all respects.