Trinity Launches Peer Mentoring Program for Early-Stage PhD Students

A new Trinity College of Arts & Sciences program offering peer mentoring to Ph.D. students in their first, second or third year at Duke will begin hosting meetings this fall, and has selected the inaugural class of fellows to lead those groups.

Designed as small, interdisciplinary mentoring groups each facilitated by a peer fellow, the program aims to help students flourish in their respective doctoral programs – providing a confidential space to navigate frustrations, offering a diversity of perspectives, encouraging conversations that widen their Duke networks and more.

Each group will meet for approximately six hours total over the fall semester. Ph.D. students in years 1-3 affiliated with any Trinity College department or program are eligible to participate. A process for joining these mentoring groups will be announced in July 2021.

The first 12 peer mentoring fellows were selected based on their interest and expertise in supporting the flourishing and well-being of other Ph.D. students. All have undergone additional training to prepare for facilitation of the mentoring groups. They are:

• Mohammed Ali – Fifth Year, History
• Arianti Rojas Carvajal – Third Year, Biology
• Edgar Cook – Fourth Year, Political Science
• Caleb Hazelwood – Third Year, Philosophy
• Dana Hogan – Third Year, Art History & Visual Culture
• Alexis L. Holloway – Third Year, Cultural Anthropology
• Leann McLaren – Third Year, Political Science
• Maggie McDowell – Sixth Year, English
• Julia Notar – Sixth Year, Biology
• Laavanya Sankaranarayanan – Fifth Year, Genetics and Genomics
• Adam Stanaland – Fifth Year, Psychology and Public Policy
• Meghan Woolley – Sixth Year, History

More information about these students and the peer mentoring program is available on the Duke Interdisciplinary Studies website. You can also email Maria Wisdom, Director of Interdisciplinary Advising and Engagement, at maria.wisdom@duke.edu.