Information for Potential Mentors

OHSU PROPEL (formerly OHSU PREP) offers professional development and skills-building workshops to postbaccalaureate scholars working full-time as Research Assistants (RAs). We look forward to working with research mentors who are committed to mentorship and creating safe, supportive research training environments. 

Mentor support enables our program to demonstrate institutional capacity and scale with the training needs of early-career researchers.

Mentor Activities

PROPEL scholars will spend most of their time researching in the lab under your guidance and an additional 1-2 meetings per week with program administrators on professional development (i.e., skill-building workshops and seminars).

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.), including allowance for PROPEL professional development activities outside of the lab.
  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.