IARPC Collaborations Mentorship Program: 2025-26 Session
Collaborations brings together individuals from a variety of disciplines, knowledge systems, career paths, and career stages around the shared goal of improving collaboration in Arctic science and research. The Collaborations Mentorship Program draws on this community to provide career growth and mentoring opportunities from a variety of career stages and paths within the polar research community. It brings together small groups of researchers and other professionals to discuss career opportunities and issues, learn from and support one another through transition and change, and grow as leaders together.
The 2025-26 session of the Collaborations Mentorship Program, hosted by the Early Career Community of Practice in partnership with the Polar Science Early Career Community Office () and the United States Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (), will run from September 2025 to May 2026. It will kick off at a launch meeting on September 10 at 11am AKT; after that, mentorship groups will meet at least monthly.
Participants will be placed in small mentoring circles (4-5 people per circle) that include individuals from a spread of career stages and types of career. Depending on the number of people interested in this session, circles may be organized by general field, or may include a variety of fields and themes.
Sign Up
Sign ups for the 2025-26 session of the mentorship program are closed. Please reach out to Samantha Halstead Santez at shalstez@umd.edu with any questions.
How the Program Works
Who Is Eligible?
Anyone working in the polar research space can join the Collaborations Mentorship Program. You do not have to be a scientist or to be actively researching/publishing. This program is not exclusively for early-career individuals. We encourage people from all career stages to sign up.
How Do I Sign Up?
Sign ups for the 2025-26 session of the mentorship program are closed. Please reach out to Samantha Halstead Santez at shalstez@umd.edu with any questions.
How Will I Get Placed in a Circle?
Once the application period closes, participants will be placed in groups of 4-5.
Depending on the number of people interested in the program, circles may be organized by general field (e.g., oceanography, social sciences, etc.), or may include a variety of fields and themes.
Once circles are created, the Early Career Community of Practice leads and team will host a program launch meeting. After this first meeting, the circle will be responsible for setting a monthly meeting time.
What Is the Time Commitment?
Participants should plan to devote an hour per month to meeting with their mentorship circles.
While not required, we also encourage members to hold rotating one-on-one tag-ups with other members of their mentorship circle on a monthly basis.
Why Mentorship Circles?
Having mentoring circles rather than one-on-one pairings helps people work with mentors from a variety of disciplines and career stages. It also helps break down some of the hierarchies inherent in mentoring: for example, mid-career individuals can mentor one another, and early-career and established individuals can also learn from one another.
How Do Mentorship Circles Work?
Mentoring circles will meet monthly. Their structure and discussion style will follow the Circle Way, which supports non-hierarchical discussions.
For each discussion meeting, circles will be given a series of questions/prompts, sometimes paired with an article or other reading. Circles can also develop their own lines of inquiry based around their groups’ interest.
Discussion Format: The Circle Way
Mentorship circles will be guided by an adapted form of The Circle Way, a discussion format that prioritizes thoughtful speaking and listening, and supports nonhierarchical interactions. We encourage all participants to read the basic guidelines for calling a circle. While this format is designed for in-person interactions, recommends the following adaptations:
- Roles: These should rotate among group members from meeting to meeting:
- Moderator: This person guides the meeting, including setting the intention, starting the meeting, and prompting discussion when needed
- Guardian: This person safeguards the group and calls a pause if a breach of the group norms occurs or for any other reason a moment to take a breath would be helpful.
- Scribe: Groups are not expected to take comprehensive notes, but the scribe notes any items for follow-up or resources that are mentioned during discussion. The scribe may also note down who will fill which role in the next meeting.
- Setting intention: Begin the meeting with an overview of the goals of the meeting. What do we want to get out of this meeting? What questions are we considering?
- Welcome: It may be helpful to start the meeting with some kind of gesture (a moment of silence, a deep breath, etc.) to shift group members from work/social space into the mentorship circle space.
- Check-in: This step usually starts with a volunteer and proceeds around the group, giving each member a chance to share how they are doing that day, week, or month. This is one of the most important steps, as it supports interpersonal connection and helps group members show up authentically.
- Three principles:
- Leadership rotates among all circle members.
- Responsibility is shared for the quality of the discussion and the wellness of the member.
- Emphasis is on what everyone is getting out of the mentorship circle, rather than on any personal agenda.
- Three practices:
- Speak with intention, focusing on relevance to the conversation at the moment.
- Listen with attention—close out of email and other distractions.
- Tend to the well-being of the circle, paying attention to the impact of your contributions.
- Check-out: At the close of a mentorship circle meeting, allow a few minutes for each person to comment on what they learned or what will stay with them as they leave. This helps signal an end to the conversation and to tie up any loose ends.
Who to Contact If You Need Help or Have Suggestions
For questions or comments about the mentorship program, contact Early Career Community of Practice Co-Lead Samantha Halstead Santez at shalstez@umd.edu.