Graduate Center for Inclusive Mentoring
The Graduate Center for Inclusive Mentoring works to improve the mentoring culture at CSU to ultimately elevate the personal and professional success of graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. GCIM fosters a supportive community that strengthens mentor and mentee relationships through trainings, meaningful conversations, and skills for offering personalized advice.
Mentoring Resources for Graduate Students
We help students build a supportive community and connect with affinity groups that are open to all graduate students. We advance student and postdoctoral success by:
- Creating a community where everyone feels respected, valued, and empowered to contribute their unique perspectives.
- Providing professional development and mentoring training.
- Creating community and belonging and networking initiatives.
- Supporting robust peer mentoring networks through the Graduate Peer Mentoring Program.
- Encouraging faculty mentoring efforts to strengthen mentor-mentee relationships and improve recruitment and retention of students and postdoctoral scholars.
- Access to faculty networks engaged in mentoring initiatives.
CSU’s Principles of Community guide our efforts and we uphold these principles through all Graduate School efforts.
Mentor Mondays
This in-person series focuses on effective mentoring relationships and their critical role in the graduate community. Graduate students, postdoctoral scholars and faculty are all invited to attend.
“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
Upcoming Events
Fall 2025 Mentor Monday Sessions will be posted in late summer.
Sessions are typically held on the first Monday of the month, from noon to 1:00 p.m. Registration is required and lunch is provided.
Graduate Student Groups
Affinity groups are open to graduate students in any academic program to help cultivate community and belonging.
Graduate Peer Mentoring Program
GPMP strives to foster communities of support for CSU graduate students by engaging their strengths, 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, and compatibility.
GCIM Faculty
GCIM faculty are actively engaged in mentoring initiatives, training, and actively support mentoring best practices. GCIM mentors focus on meeting each student’s specific needs while fostering a supportive community.
Faculty Mentoring Excellence
Mentoring initiatives and trainings recognize that each graduate student has unique experiences, challenges, and opportunities, and focus on helping students build their individual strengths to achieve their goals.
GCIM offers faculty:
- Mentor Well trainings and recognition of skill building through a certificate
- Consultative services to departments and colleges regarding graduate recruitment, retention, and professional development.
- Grants for department level training, as funding is available.
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 intended for faculty mentors of graduate students but will have useful information for mentors of all types. The training is based off the Entering Mentoring curriculum developed by the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER). 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 and Self-efficacy
- Fostering Mental Health and Well-being
- Fostering Access: Building Connections and Community
- Fostering Professional Development
- Mentoring Capstone: Building out your Mentoring Philosophy
Recommended sessions to begin your training are: Aligning Expectations and Maintaining Effective Communication. 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
Resources
Our GCIM faculty are actively engaged in the GCIM. They prioritize mentoring students and support best practices. GCIM mentors focus on meeting each student’s specific needs while fostering a supportive community.
Downloadable resources and helpful links for the community are below.
Awards Spotlight
The Graduate School’s Land-Grant Fellowship
This fellowship recognizes outstanding incoming graduate students to CSU who demonstrate excellence in academics, scholarship and community service.
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.
Board of Governors Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award
Presented annually to faculty members who stimulate the curiosity of students by motivating and challenging them. Award is sponsored by the Board of Governors of the CSU System.
Grad Ram Impact
Paul Haarala
“It’s been really rewarding to realize how capable I am at doing things that I might not be comfortable with,” Haarala said. “I didn’t really know what a thesis was before I came here, and now I’ve written a 100-page document.”
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
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.