National Mentoring Community


Mentees

Studying physics is incredibly rewarding, and challenging. Successful people depend on mentors to help them. The APS National Mentoring Community is an effort to increase the success of underrepresented minority students in physics by providing a structured mentoring experience.

Steps to Sign up for the NMC and Find a Mentor

  1. Use your APS web account to register. Don't have an APS web account? Create one here.
  2. If you already know the name, email, and/or institution of the person you would like to invite to become your NMC mentor, search for them in the current database and invite them to connect with you.
  3. If you don't already know someone within the NMC, you can utilize the "suggested mentors" feature to find potential mentors based on the geographical location of your primary affiliation listed in your APS account.

How will I benefit?

  • You receive career and professional advice from a physicist or faculty member in a related field
  • You get a one-year free student membership in the American Physical Society
  • You get inside scoop on resources and opportunities like research experiences
  • You get access to a network of physicists who can help accelerate your education and career
  • You become eligible to apply for funding to attend the National Mentoring Community conference where many mentors and mentees from around the country will come together for professional development, networking, and exposure to important opportunities
  • In the future, mentees with financial need will be eligible to apply for scholarships and educational awards
  • You have access to the NMC Bringing Emergency Aid to Mentees (BEAM) Fund

What can my mentor help me with?

  • Navigate the maze of college requirements – get specific advice on which courses to take to achieve your goals is important
  • Career Advice – determine your career goals and the best ways to achieve them
  • Success Strategies – understand the best time to apply for scholarships, graduate school, or jobs; manage your time; build key relationships, etc.
  • Expand Your Network – introduce you to key people to help you achieve your goals.
  • Learn about opportunities and resources
  • Much more…

Questions? Feedback? Contact NMC@aps.org

NMC Events

National Mentoring Community Reception at March Meeting 2023

  • Tuesday, March 7 , 4:30 - 6 pm PST
  • Harrah's Las Vegas, Parlor B

Join us to learn more about the APS National Mentoring Community (NMC).We especially encourage current mentors and mentees to join to connect in-person. The NMC facilitates and supports mentoring relationships between Black/African, Latinx, and Indigenous physics students and physics mentors. Membership in the NMC is free for both Mentors and Mentees. Complimentary headshots are available to students when they RSVP.

Learn more and RSVP

Mentees

For questions, please contact nmc@aps.org.

Testimonials from Mentees

[The NMC program] opened my chances for opportunities I thought I would never have. I mean that with the deepest sincerities.

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[The NMC program]  connected me to other physicists and afforded me [the] visibility of our diversity. Physicists get typecast into a certain demeanor, look, and nature, but NMC brought together various physicists of all types. It bolstered the self-confidence that I had knowing that we are unified by the pursuit of answers, but otherwise diverse.