Pop-Up Mentoring Program at the LSA Annual Meeting
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What is Pop-Up Mentoring?
The Pop-Up Mentoring Program (PUMP) is an initiative, launched by a subset of the LSA's Committee on the Status of Women in Linguistics (COSWL - this committee is now known as COGEL - the Committee on Gender Equity in Linguistics), that travels around from conference to conference, giving anyone who is interested a chance to have a brief meeting with a mentor outside of their official support system. Mentors and mentees are paired by a COGEL (formerly COSWL)-designated PUMP coordinator based on shared interests for a one-time, no strings attached mentoring session. Although the event is a COGEL (formerly COSWL) initiative, it is open to ALL, regardless of gender or career stage, and the purpose of the mentoring sessions is to help more junior colleagues with a variety of potential problems and questions that arise in a professional context, such as work/life balance, international student/faculty, publishing, job applications/interviews, and racial/ethnic minority status.
In our first year of operation we hosted over a dozen events with over 350 participants.
Why participate in a PUMP event?
Mentees report that it has been extremely valuable to meet someone outside of their department to whom they can pose questions they feel they cannot discuss with their official mentors.
Mentors report how enriching it has been to learn a broader context in which to examine the field and their own official mentees’ experiences.
Conference organizers, too, report a big return on a very small investment: PUMP events help make a conference more attractive and inclusive. Previous conference organizers have also reported that having PUM as part of the conference helped them with securing additional support from their local institutions, for instance, in securing conference rooms.
Is Pop-Up Mentoring Avaiable at the LSA Annual Meetings?
Yes! The LSA hosts PUMP events at its Annual Meetings and Linguistic Institutes. Sign up as a mentee. Sign up as a mentor.