The Women Mentoring Women program matches postdoctoral scholars with graduate women for a one-to-one mentoring experience. The purpose is to provide support for women graduate students as they negotiate their academic, professional, and personal development. Each mentoring match meets over a one-year period—some meet monthly, others bi-weekly. Each month there are workshops, discussions or networking socials. Matches receive coffee stipends, books and other resource materials.

What's Involved in the Women Mentoring Women program?
The Match: The foundation of WMW is the individual, one-to-one connection that is fostered between mentor and mentee.  These individual mentoring meetings are where the matches discuss academic, professional, and personal issues, set and work toward goals, problem solve, and celebrate successes. Matches are required to meet at least once a month.  As a bonus, WMW provides a small coffee stipend to help matches defray the cost of meetings!

The Support: In addition, monthly group mentoring opportunities, such as presentations by faculty and career-skill seminars support the one-to-one mentoring.

The Community: Past participants often say that one of the best parts of the WMW program is the community of women.  The program provides plenty of opportunities and social events to meet and know other women on campus.

The Resources: Participants are able to participate in a private listserv –complete with topical discussions and resources.  Also, mentors and mentees will receive books, articles, and other resources to help support their professional development.

How I can get involved in WMW?
There are a few different ways to participate in the program:

• First-year graduate students are matched with an upper-class graduate student mentor.
• Upper-class graduate students (2nd year and beyond) are matched as a mentee with a postdoctoral scholar OR as a mentor with a first-year student OR both!
• Networking Membership- This is a chance for women who want to meet fellow graduate students and postdocs for social and networking opportunities throughout the year but cannot commit to a mentoring relationship.

Click here to read about participant involvement in WMW and additional information on the application and matching process.

What is the Women Mentoring Women Advisory Board?
The Advisory Board provides support and guidance to the Women Mentoring Women program on marketing and recruitment, orientation, program development, and social networking opportunities. In addition, the Advisory Board serves as an important liaison between the Women's Center and the Caltech community.