What is the Music Mentoring Program?
The Department of Music’s Mentoring Program matches undergraduate music students with trained graduate student mentors on a by-request basis.
This program creates spaces for undergraduate and graduate students to explore questions and concerns related to their academic experience, encouraging intellectual, professional, and social support.
Open to any undergraduate student affiliated with the Department of Music (ex. participating in a departmental or student-run ensemble, taking a MUS class, majoring or pursuing a minor/certificate in music, etc.), this program seeks to be accessible to any student who would benefit from a mentoring relationship. Come one, come all!
*This program is generously supported by the TigerWell Initiative
1) Foster increased social connectedness between undergraduate and graduate student populations;
2) Increase transparency regarding departmental resources and processes within the Music Department; and
3) Create space for both undergraduate and graduate students to examine their passions and purpose.
In these ways, this program will work to bring together two distinct student populations, bridging previously separate communities to bolster overall departmental unity and student well-being at both the undergraduate and graduate level.
Who should sign up? Why should I sign up for mentorship?
Any undergraduate student affiliated with the Music Department (in any way!) is welcome to sign up for this program! Benefits for mentees will be individualized and tailored to the student’s particular needs and interest, but will always include the opportunity to connect with peers and grad mentors in a safe space for exploring personal, academic, and career development and growth.
- Possible topics of discussions include (but not limited to) :
- Academic questions
- Majoring in music
- Performance? Musicology? Composition? What about music education? Business? Advertisement? Production? Therapy? Etc.?
- Setting up goals / making concrete steps to actually achieve them
- Pursuing graduate music studies
- What does graduate music studies entail?
- What does Musicology/Composition/Music Theory/Music Cognition look like at the graduate level?
- How do I know it’s a good fit for me?
- How would I find programs I’m interested in or start applying?
- Thinking through how to translate your musical and/or scholarly passions into potential post-graduation career paths
How do I become a mentor?
All Music Department graduate students in the Musicology and Composition programs are welcome to join the mentor cohort. All mentors receive formal mentoring training, ongoing mentoring support, and an institutionally recognized means of gaining teaching and mentoring experience.
Mentor training will take place at the beginning of each semester for all new mentors and will be open to returning mentors. This training will highlight best practices in active listening and mentoring, confidentiality and Title IX requirements, and information regarding departmental resources and support..
In addition, mentors will receive ongoing support in the form of optional mid-semester mentoring circles in which mentors will meet to discuss trends, issues, and highlights from ongoing matches.
Mentors will be equipped with:
- Transferable skills in mentorship
- Space for graduate students to reflect on and process their mentoring highlights and develop their own mentoring style
- Discuss highlights, challenges, and questions with a group of peer mentors
- 1-on-1 mentorship pairings:
- Coffee Chats
- Meet with a Mentor for a single meet-up – great for short, quick questions or informational interviews
- Recurring Mentorship Meetings
- For the duration of one semester or one academic year, mentees can request an ongoing mentorship pairing at a recurring interval (once per month, twice per month, etc.)
- Coffee Chats
- Group mentorship pods:
- Recurring mentee-mentor meetings with 3-5 undergraduate mentees and 1-2 graduate mentors, centered around a common theme or topic (composition, applying to graduate school in music, exploring post-graduation opportunities for music majors/certificates, etc. – suggest a topic or focus of your own!)
- If you are interested in joining a Fall 2023 mentorship pod, reach out directly to to indicate your interest.
