2024-2025 Mountaineer Peer Mentoring Circles
MID-CAREER ACADEMIC PARENTS OF YOUNG CHILDREN
Contacts: Rachel Wilson & Jamie Levine
Facilitators: Year 1 Circle Members
This peer mentoring circle will focus on navigating the demands of mid-career faculty while simultaneously parenting young children. Mid-career faculty have achieved tenure, so they have some job security, but are faced with decisions about where to focus their time. Parents of young children may face greater difficulties in making these decisions, because of their limited time. Some topics that we may discuss include: work-life harmony, successful time management strategies, future career pathways and possible career trajectories, and how to effectively say NO.
Meeting Pattern & Location: We plan to meet on Wednesdays either at 9 am or 1pm (alternating between times every other meeting) about once a month. We may have some meetings on zoom. Our fall meeting dates will be:
Wednesday August 28th at 9 am (in person)
Wednesday September 25th at 1 pm
Wednesday October 16th at 9 am
Wednesday November 13th at 1 pm
EARLY-CAREER FACULTY PARENT NETWORK (EFPN)
Facilitators: Chris Quattro & Zach Russell
This group is a support network for early-career faculty who have young children at home. It offers an opportunity for members to share their experiences, recommend resources both at App State and in the community, and build relationships with other families. Many early-career faculty are new to Boone or Appalachian State, and this group allows for community building with families of similar needs and interests.
The EFPN Peer Support Network offers three methods of connection. First, the group will facilitate monthly lunch hours on campus during the week for members to come together. Second, the group will offer monthly coordinated playdates among the members on weekends, allowing time for families to socialize in child-friendly environments within the community. Third, group members will be added to a designated digital forum that serves as a space to ask questions, share knowledge, and connect with peers. We understand that we have a lot on our plates, but many still want to get engaged. Members may choose the level of involvement and which of these platforms work best for them! This group is supportive of Queer and non-traditional family types.
Meeting Pattern & Location (dependent on member schedules and interests, TBD):
August – Online forum creation (continuous)
September Lunch Hour - weekday
September Playdate – weekend
October Lunch Hour - weekday
October Playdate – weekend
November Lunch Hour - weekday
November Playdate – weekend
INTERNATIONAL MOUNTAINEER FACULTY (IMF) PEER-MENTORING CIRCLE
Facilitators: Juhee Woo & YeJun Bae
IMF aims to bring international faculty (tenure-track and VITAL members) together to share their experiences working and living in the High Country with international backgrounds and provide mentorship to address their unique challenges and foster diversity and inclusion at Appalachian State University.
Meeting Pattern & Location: In August and September of the fall semester, we will meet every other week. Specific dates/times will be determined after getting feedback from interested members to maximize attendance. Around mid-October, we will slowly transition to monthly meetings, pending the members’ preference. These meetings will be held in person and via Zoom. In-person gatherings will occur in various locations.
GOAL SETTING FOR YOUR ACADEMIC GROOVE: TURNING THE INVISIBLE TO VISIBLE THROUGH GOAL SETTING, ACCOUNTABILITY AND ACTION
Facilitators: Jacob Blazejewski & Joy James
This peer mentoring circle will focus on faculty’s choice of a needed scholarship project (components range from data collection, analysis, manuscript development, grant writing, etc.) for the 2024-2025 academic year. Circle participants will develop goals and attainable objectives for their scholarship project for the academic year. We believe this is an important first step as Tony Robbins states, “Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible to visible”. The community will help keep each other accountable as a group by creating accountability mechanisms (buddies, discussions and deadlines) for the individual projects.
Meeting Pattern & Location: Meetings will occur both in person (library; Fall Semester) and via Zoom (Spring Semester or as needed). Initially, the focus will be on in-person meetings, but we can shift to adding Zoom meetings.
Tuesday, September 24, 3pm-4pm or 3:30-4:30pm
Tuesday, October 29, 3pm-4pm or 3:30-4:30pm
Tuesday, November 19, 3pm-4pm or 3:30-4:30pm
WRITE, WRITE, RIGHT! (AKA: Do your writing on Thursdays so you don’t feel guilty for not writing during the weekend! )
Facilitators: Emily Dakin & Mike Howell
Our goal in this peer mentoring circle is simple: To create a shared virtual coworking space for writing. We created this peer mentoring circle during the initial round of peer mentoring circles in the 2023-2024 year. Both we and other participants last year found it helpful to have weekly protected time and accountability for writing within a writing group. Last year we included a lot of professional development content in addition to the writing time. This year we are paring our circle down to its most basic and essential element: designated writing time in community. For our writing circle this year, we will meet over Zoom and immediately start our writing timer. We will do two, 30-minute writing sprints. After our writing sprints are done, we will update and check in with one another, learning about and supporting our respective writing projects. “Writing” is broadly defined as the writing that you need to do to be successful with your workload and to meet your goals. The power of this peer mentoring circle is in its simplicity: with writing as our only focus, you will make progress on your writing goals in a protected weekly space with supportive, encouraging colleagues who also benefit from your support and encouragement with achieving their writing goals. Peer mentoring in this circle is fostered through mutual support, sharing strategies for writing success, and resources for writing curated by the facilitators and circle members.
Meeting pattern and location: Thursdays 10:30 a.m.-12:00 noon over zoom
SOLO MOUNTAINEERS
Facilitators: Jennifer Luetkemeyer & Dena Kniess
In this peer mentoring circle, we seek to develop community and facilitate a sense of belonging for solo faculty members. As the literature shows for student transitions, the first six weeks of the academic year are the “make or break” weeks that determine if a student will be retained (Elkins, et al., 2000). This is why campus programming is so crucial to helping students find connections to other students and the institution. Parallels exist for faculty and staff. Onboarding studies show that employees should work to integrate into peer groups within the first 30-120 days and develop networks within the organization during the first 90 days (Reese, 2005). The onboarding process should go beyond the administrative pieces to enhance retention of new faculty members. We believe in a holistic approach to onboard faculty to life in Boone and the high country.
NOTE: Members of the group may be single, or may have partners living elsewhere. Solo/single parents are welcome, but outings are intended to be child-free events and may not always be “kid-friendly”. This group is not intended to provide community around parenting as an academic. Additionally, the goal is not to form a “singles group,” where folks can find a partner, but more of a space for those living here alone to come together, make friends, and form a community.
Meeting Pattern & Location: This group will meet every 3-4 weeks either via ZOOM, or at various locations in Boone and surrounding areas on Fridays and/or Saturdays. Meeting dates and locations for the Fall semester will be determined at the first ZOOM meeting to be held on Friday, September 6 at noon. Generally, we will meet on ZOOM one Friday each month at noon and have an outing once per month. Some examples of outings include Welcome dinner and drinks, Watauga Farmers Market and lunch, and Hiking at local venues.
STUDY HABITS IN SECONDARY EDUCATION
Facilitators: Ann Wortinger & Rebecca Newman
In this peer mentoring circle, we will focus on developing strategies to help improve study
habits and information retention for students enrolled in the medical field. Many of our adult learners are ill-prepared for the depth of information required in the medical field or the rate at which it is often presented. Retention of information is a problem we have seen both in subsequent classes (i.e., anesthesia followed by surgical assisting) and also once the students enter their clinical externships, where learning needs to be demonstrated through skill. After graduation, many in the medical field will be required to take credentialing exams before they can actually practice in that field. It is not simply a matter of completing the coursework and graduating.
Helping students develop good study habits in school will also have a positive effect on their various credentialing exams. These exams are, for the most part, cumulative exams covering all of their coursework. Individual programs are evaluated through their students’ pass rates on these exams, which can directly affect their accreditation.
Meeting Pattern and Location: Virtual meetings are conducted over Zoom, with asynchronous communication as needed.
Proposed meeting dates for the fall semester:
Wednesday, 9/11/24 at 11 am
Wednesday 9/25/24 at 11 am
Wednesday 10/9/24 at 11 am
Wednesday 10/30/24 at 11 am
Wednesday 11/20/24 at 11 am
Wednesday 12/11/24 at 11 am
The HUMANITIES GRANT WRITERS’ HUB
Facilitators: Lora Hawkins & Jacob Babb
In this peer mentoring circle, we will help each other identify and develop grant proposals for external grant programs with the goal of improving our chances of successfully attracting grants and opportunities. Faculty in the humanities often have less experience writing grants than in other areas, and we want to use this peer mentoring circle to build experience in and support for grant writing to fund projects in the humanities. Our support will include seeking internal grant opportunities to support these efforts, reviewing and critiquing grant applications, and establishing timelines to ensure accountability as we seek to “maximize support for scholarly and creative activities” in accordance with the university’s strategic priorities. In short, we see investment from the university in this peer mentoring circle as an opportunity to bring future funding in the humanities into the university, which ultimately yields great opportunities for both faculty and students.
Meeting Pattern and Location: Virtual meetings are conducted over Zoom, with asynchronous communication as needed. The group will meet via Zoom twice in September
and at least once a month for an hour. Proposed meeting dates for fall semester:
September 20th 10-11am
September 27th 10-11am
(There's a big humanities grant due on the 30th).
2nd Friday of each month from 10-11.
Intended audience: This group is intended for faculty, both tenure-track and VITAL,
in fields in the humanities, who are interested in applying for grant opportunities to
fund projects, including fellowships.