What It Takes to Sustain a Mentoring Community

For more than 20 years, PROMISE has connected graduate students and postdoctoral scholars with mentors, peers and pathways to academic careers in STEM. A new paper in Frontiers in Education asks what it takes to build those connections—and keep them going across institutions and generations.

“Fulfilling the PROMISE: why we must continue programs to broaden participation in STEM” brings together eight authors, including UC Davis Inclusive Excellence colleagues Ebony E. Lewis, Jee Young Bhan and Vice Chancellor Renetta Garrison Tull. They reflect on the evolution of PROMISE from an alliance founded among three Maryland universities in 2002 to a network of programs connecting students, faculty, alumni and university leaders. In its first decade, the Maryland alliance produced more than 200 STEM Ph.D. graduates. Many alumni continue to strengthen the network as faculty members, administrators and mentors.

The authors describe the people who sustain PROMISE as “Ignitors” who founded it, “Torchbearers” who steward its programs, “Illuminators” who study their impact and “Flamekeepers” who participated and are building their own careers. These roles help tell a story that extends beyond any one cohort: former fellows return as mentors, panelists and speakers, helping the next generation find its way.

The paper shows how that network has grown:

• More than 200 STEM Ph.D. graduates came through the original alliance among three Maryland universities during its first decade. Alumni continue to participate as faculty members, administrators, speakers and mentors.
• An East–West partnership formed after Tull joined UC Davis in 2019, bringing PROMISE Engineering Institute fellows from Maryland and California together for mentoring, peer connections and leadership development.
• More than 80% of participating postdocs in the related AGEP PROMISE Academy Alliance program have moved into tenure-track positions, according to the paper.
• A new program at UC Davis grew from those connections: PROMISE fellows adapted a Maryland gathering into Aggie Resilience, now in its third year.

The authors also describe the work behind those outcomes: building cohorts, helping scholars understand the unwritten expectations of academic careers and inviting alumni to support the people who follow them.

“It’s so important to tell our stories and the impact of our work,” Lewis wrote in sharing the paper. At an earlier UC Davis mentoring event, Tull encouraged participants to “continue to move into your own mentoring roles, whether they are formal or informal.”

The paper honors the late Johnetta Davis, a PROMISE founder. In announcing its publication, Tull also remembered Leshale Pugh, a former student and PROMISE participant who recently passed away. Their place in the PROMISE community underscores the paper’s central point: mentoring networks endure through the people who build them, participate in them and care for the scholars who follow.

Read “Fulfilling the PROMISE” in Frontiers in Education