My academic journey could not have been made happen without the valuable guidance from my excellent mentors. I decided to pass along this asset to the next generation of students and researchers.
In 2023 Winter, I received the NMRN Research Mentor Training (funded by UMass Graduate School), where I learned mentoring student researchers from the perspective of Diversity, Equity and Inclusiveness. In 2023 Summer, I started working as a facilitator for the training, to help more faculty and graduate students get engaged in it.
I have mentored undergraduate honors thesis students and undergrad research assistants. I am deeply proud of my mentees’ accomplishments and of the diverse paths they have gone on to pursue. Here are some examples of what my former mentees are doing now:
Saliha Bayrak – former honors thesis student, currently a journalist at POLITICO
Besides mentorship in research settings, I am also actively working as mentors to help underrepresented students achieve their potentials by getting into graduate schools. I am a mentor in the Project Short and Next Gen Psych Scholars, where I mentored students from disadvantaged backgrounds to demystify the Psych PhD application procedure and help them with their applciation materials. I also work as a podcaster for the ShortTalks.