News

January is National Mentoring Month. We reached out to three graduate students to get some insight into how Graduate Studies' mentoring resources have impacted their educational and scholarly journey. We asked each of them two questions:

• Why is mentoring important to graduate student success?
• Why is it important for Graduate Studies to offer mentorship programs that cultivate a strong mentorship culture at UC Davis?

See their responses below.

School of Education PhD student Antoinette Banks, BS ’22, has won the Pharrell Williams Black Ambition grand prize of $1 million for Expert IEP, her parent-facing app that uses predictive AI to optimize existing individualized education plans for children diagnosed with disabilities.

In many ways, Jessi Jarrin’s story at UC Davis is just beginning to be written. A first-year MFA in poetry student, Jarrin was awarded a prestigious Eugene Cota-Robles Fellowship, providing her with full tuition and fees plus a stipend for two years to support her graduate education.

Zoila Silvia Mendoza, Ph.D. is a professor and chair of the graduate program and department of Native American Studies at UC Davis, the outgoing Interim Director of Center for the Advancement of Multicultural Perspectives on Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities (CAMPSSAH), and the “Why I DEI” feature for November 2023. 

UC Davis DEI recently had the opportunity to ask Mendoza a few questions about her work in DEI space, her 30-year career at UC Davis and to learn more about her “Why I DEI.”

Graduate Studies has named Daniel Castaneda, Ph.D. candidate in History, the Graduate Student Advisor to the Dean of Graduate Studies and to the Chancellor (GSADC) for the 2023-2024 academic year.

Every year the UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program funds 30 outstanding postdoctoral fellows conducting all types of research across the University of California's ten campuses. 

BERKELEY, California, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Meghan Holst studies the broadnose sevengill shark, so she was naturally concerned when record-setting rain this year altered the shark's nursery grounds in San Francisco Bay.

But the species appears to have withstood the challenge, based on initial observations from a recent outing on the water by Holst, a 31-year-old doctoral student in conservation ecology at the University of California, Davis.

Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular and Development Biology (BMCDB) graduate program coordinator Alyssa Parsons, ’12 was recently honored with the 2023 Outstanding Graduate Program Coordinator award by Graduate Studies.

This award recognizes UC Davis graduate program coordinators who demonstrate initiative beyond their programs and contribute to campus- or systemwide improvements in graduate education.

Every year, outstanding individuals are recognized for their dedication to guiding and mentoring graduate students. Their exceptional guidance and unwavering support have profoundly impacted the lives of those they have mentored. The winners of the 2023 Graduate Program Advising and Mentoring Award were commended for their unparalleled dedication and commitment to the growth and success of others. Some testimonials include:

Summer can be the busiest season for some graduate students and postdoctoral scholars, especially those whose research relies on a quintessential summer staple: hot weather.