LGBTQ Mentoring Program
What is the LGBTQ Mentoring Program?
Initiated in January 2001, the University of Chicago LGBTQ Mentoring Program pairs LBGTQ undergraduates with an LGBTQ member of the faculty or staff. Mentors serve as a resource and a sympathetic queer adult who is supportive as students navigate through a (mostly) straight world. By interacting with an LGBTQ faculty or staff member, the hope is that students will gain a sense of the larger community that is available to them both on campus and in the city.
Mentors and students meet at least once each quarter and have weekly contact via telephone or e-mail. In addition, the program sponsors quarterly get-togethers (usually an informal dinner) and other social events, including trips to the theater and sports events.
To help build community and promote volunteerism, the mentoring program coordinates volunteer projects with other Chicago LGBTQ organizations, thereby affording students opportunities to experience the larger community first-hand.
Mentors are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered staff and faculty members who
- work in a variety of departments across campus and in the hospitals
- have been with the University for a number of years
- have been out both in the workplace and in their personal lives long enough that they have valuable experiences to share with mentees
Mentees are College students at every stage of the coming out process
- some are just starting to think about coming out
- some have come out only recently
- some have been out for a long time
Student mentees are assigned to mentors with whom they can work until they graduate, although staying with a single mentor is not a requirement. Mentor/mentee relationships are as uniquely defined as the individuals who make up these dyads.
For more information about the LBGTQ Mentoring Program or to obtain an
application to join the program as a mentee or mentor,
please read http://lgbtq.uchicago.edu/life
