The CPS Mentorship Program

Who are CPS Mentors?

Mentors are current, past, or emeritus CPS members who wish to donate their time, experience, and expertise to younger CPS scientists and professionals. Mentorship is intended to enrich the experience for both the mentor and mentored. Examples of the mentorship include review of research plans, outlines, experimental design, and aiding in writing and editing grants and manuscripts. Mentors can also help in writing CVs and assist in job interview preparation. Mentors are not intended to do all the work for the mentored; it must be a fair and balanced relationship.

Why become a mentor? Firstly, there is satisfaction in helping the next generation of plant pathologists. Secondly, retired members can remain current with the science. The Board is also currently looking for ways to encourage and reward mentors for their service.

Who are the Mentored?
The Mentored are young plant pathology professionals who are unemployed or employed in academia, government or private industry and wish to increase their competencies and confidence in any aspect of plant pathology. Graduate students and post-docs, whose advisors, committee members and colleagues etc. are available to serve as mentors, will not normally be considered for the Mentorship Program. However, there may be opportunities for mentors to add to the depth and breadth to graduate student committees at the discretion of the major advisor.

How will the Mentorship Program work?

Mentors will login to the CPS website and submit a brief profile containing contact information and areas of interest and expertise. These profiles will be posted on the CPS Website. Young scientists and professionals belonging to the CPS would login to the website, submit a brief profile, and select mentors based on their areas of expertise requirements and contact them directly. Mentors would be permitted to mentor more than one individual at a time. However, the mentored will only be permitted one mentor at a time and must terminate their association with their mentor before contacting a new mentor. Mentor/mentored pairs will be posted on the CPS website. The mentor will inform the website editor when the pairing starts and when it ends, and when the mentor wants withdraw from the program.

How long do mentor/mentored associations last?

The association will last if both parties are satisfied with the relationship. Either the mentor or mentored can terminate the association at any time by informing the other party and the website editor.

The CPS website will be set up in the near future to describe and accommodate the mentorship program. This program is expected to evolve over time. If you have any suggestions on this program, please send them to Denis Gaudet (denisandregaudet@gmail.com).