The Water Research Mentorship Program, currently funded by Oklahoma NSF EPSCoR, was established by Dr. Mary Foltz, Dr. Jaime Schussler, and Valerie Phillips in Spring 2024 and is now in its third year and ready to welcome its third cohort. In its second year, the program welcomes Brenda Witt and Dr. Cheyanne Olson as co-coordinators with Drs. Foltz and Schussler.

The overarching goal of the program is to establish a formal mentorship program across the state of Oklahoma that (1) encourages student enrollment/retention, (2) enhances participation and collaboration for water research in the state, and (3) promotes inclusivity and connection between students and faculty across the state. The program is unique in providing a combination of large group professional development meetings over zoom, mentorship trio meetings over zoom with online engagement activities, and an in-person networking event at the end of the semester. Participants learn about research opportunities in the state while engaging in goal setting and accountability, promoting positive outcomes for participants at all career stages. The combination of large cohort and small group (trio) meetings offer different levels of community building and cohesion between participants from many geographic locations that would likely not interact without this program. The first cohort contained 26 total participants, including eight faculty members, nine graduate students, and nine undergraduate students across nine different universities across the state of Oklahoma, including a land-grant university, several regional universities, a minority serving institution, and a community college. The second cohort contained 30 total participants, including four faculty members, one high school teacher, one professional from industry, thirteen graduate students, nine undergraduate students, and two high school students from a total of eight unique institutions.

If you are interested in becoming involved and joining the third cohort, please complete the interest form today: https://forms.office.com/r/g91gfEtt1Q