Information for Mentors

OHSU PROPEL (formerly OHSU PREP) offers professional development and skills-building workshops to postbaccalaureate scholars. We look forward to working with research mentors who are committed to mentorship and creating safe, supportive research training environments. PROPEL research mentors host the postbac scholar and commit to covering at least 12 months of salary and benefits while the scholar works as a RA in their lab. PROPEL scheduled programming is expected to take up no more than 5 hours/week of a scholar's time (0.13 FTE).

Mentor Activities

PROPEL scholars will spend most of their time researching in the lab under your guidance and up to 5 hours/week with program administrators on scheduled skill-building activities (i.e., Growth sessions, seminars, workshops).

Scholars will present their work in a poster and oral presentation format during the spring term. We require all scholars to participate in OHSU Research Week (poster session) and present at the PROPEL research symposium (oral presentation). We also encourage the mentor to support the scholar in presenting their work at a discipline-specific conference, if appropriate.

Mentors are expected to:

  1. Clearly communicate expectations (e.g., roles/responsibilities, research, scheduling, etc.)
  2. Contribute to the development of a research plan for the scholar's one-year training through a customized IDP provided by PROPEL.
  3. Provide regular meetings with the PROPEL scholar to facilitate research productivity (e.g., support in writing activities, involvement in projects, goal-setting, etc.)
  4. Provide a plan for evaluating relationship effectiveness (e.g., bi-annual review of mentor meetings, goals, and outcomes/accomplishments)
  5. Support the development of the scholar's project with the goal of presenting their work (e.g., final approval of abstract, poster, oral presentation, or other writing)
  6. Agree to continue refining your personal mentorship by participating in mentorship training (with refreshers every 3 years) and professional development activities such as attending and/or leading bi-monthly Equity Journal Club sessions, as able.