Career Mentoring of Underrepresented STEM Students for the Professoriate (CUSP)

Are you interested in a career as a professor?

Are you from a group underrepresented in academia?

The College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at UC Riverside is launching CUSP, a pilot project funded by the UC-HSI Doctoral Diversity Initiative (UC-HSI DDI) to provide mentoring and career development to graduate students who are interested in becoming professors and are from groups typically underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

One-on-one career development mentoring from a UCR faculty member outside of your home program
Participation in CUSP professional development workshops
Support in developing your Individual Development Plan (IDP) using MyIDP

Fully funded membership in SACNAS and travel to The National Diversity in STEM Conference to present your research and network with faculty and peers
A summer stipend of $4000 to support preparation of your conference research presentation
Networking opportunities with PhD students at UCR who are interested in future careers in the professoriate

CUSP Scholar Timeline

Click for Detailed Timeline

Scholar Eligibility

CNAS graduate students in good standing who will have advanced to candidacy by January 1, 2021, and who will be enrolled full-time for the duration of the program (through Fall 2021), may apply for the 2020-2021 year.

While the intent of the UC-HSI DDI grants program is to enhance faculty pathways for domestic historically underrepresented groups, particularly Latinx, African Americans, American Indians/Native Americans, Filipinx and Pacific Islanders in all disciplines; women in STEM; and Asian Americans in the humanities and social sciences, UC-HSI DDI is designed to support students irrespective of race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, or gender identity. For the purposes of this fellowship, AB540 students are eligible. International students are not eligible.

We will be recruiting three CNAS students for the 2020-2021 program, and four CNAS students for the 2021-2022 program.

Scholars Apply here

The Scholar Application for the 2020-2021 cohort has now closed. We will notify successful applicants and match them with their career mentors in January 2021. We will be recruiting four more students for the 2021-2022 cohort starting in November 2021. Our CUSP Seminar Series in Spring 2021 is open to all graduate students.

Faculty Career Mentor Information

We seek faculty who are excited to inspire the next generation of professors. Mentors from all STEM fields are welcome, and faculty with successful experience mentoring underrepresented students are especially encouraged to apply. There will be a $1250 research stipend provided to faculty mentors. The program features a year-long program of one-to-one career mentoring for a student outside your own graduate program, helping this student develop an Individual Development Plan (IDP), and attending/presenting in a professional development seminar series in Spring 2021.

Faculty Career Mentor applications have closed for the 2021 CUSP cohort. We will be soliciting faculty mentors again for the 2022 cohort. Please check our Spring Seminar Schedule for CUSP Scholars and Mentors.