CURA Peer Mentorship Program
The CURA Peer Mentorship Program is open to freshman and sophomores who are at an early stage of their professional research development. With support and guidance from a CIRS researcher, early-year CURA student assistants will be paired with senior CURA student assistants to work together on assigned tasks related to a current CIRS research project. This program aims to provide freshmen and sophomore student assistants the opportunity for guidance and support from the experience and knowledge senior students have gained. It also aims to help senior students improve their own communication and research skills, and develop leadership and management capabilities.
Testimonials
In my experience, the CURA Peer Mentorship Program is a really good way to help prepare underclassmen to take on research work. It allows students who have been working with research longer to pass on their experience to students who are just starting out. As a research mentor, it also provided a thought-provoking benchmark against which to measure how much I had learned while working at CIRS. While guiding my mentee, I was prompted to reflect on how, just a year prior, I had been the one scrambling to figure out where to even begin with a research task and now I could actually help show someone else where to start. In a way it felt like it all had come full circle and it was a good, tangible way to measure my own progress as well.
Emma Mogensen, Class of 2018
The CURA Peer Mentorship Program helped me with all aspects of research at CIRS. From getting accustomed to new research platforms to writing reports myself, my mentor, Emma Mogensen, helped me tackle challenges at all points. I came to CIRS as a passionate freshman, albeit with little knowledge, but the peer mentorship program nourished my skills immensely. Learning from a coworker who has gone through similar hardships is, in my opinion, the most effective way to get used to things faster. Furthermore, the program enabled us to communicate more effectively, creating a friendlier environment. It did not just polish my research skills, but it also facilitated me in getting used to the Georgetown culture as a whole. Indeed, CIRS looks after the students and takes such initiatives for their betterment and increased involvement.
Abdul Rehmaan Qayyum, Class of 2021