From Mentees:

 

“I highly recommend becoming a mentee in CoRE’s program. It has been very special to have a sustained relationship with a faculty member from outside my school, to have someone to speak candidly to about the ups and downs of graduate life, about selecting and shaping a dissertation topic, and about my anxiety in academic social settings. My mentor has been a source of stability for me, and I am so grateful to them.”

 

From Mentors:

 

“It has been an honor to serve as a CoRE mentor. This program provides a much-needed space for racial/ethnic minorities in music theory (mentees and mentors) to share experiences, and as a faculty member, I value the opportunity to stay abreast of the challenges faced by graduate students, particularly BIPOC students. I’m also grateful that my mentee has introduced me to research and repertoire that I wouldn’t regularly encounter in my professional spheres.”

 

“Not only is it crucial for faculty of color to support especially graduate students of color, but discussions with your mentee can be very fun and enjoyable and can give you a perspective on graduate programs outside your own. We’ve been able to talk about everything from research topics, to interdisciplinary study, strategizing for the future, and coping with everything going on in the world.”

 

“The challenges facing minority music theorists are specific to our field, and often very personal as well. But they also intersect with wider issues facing teachers and scholars globally, e.g., in the economics of higher education, employment prospects in the humanities, and so on. So, negotiating all this nexus can be tricky, and therefore the Mentoring Program’s efforts to help junior scholars in this goal is much needed and timely. In my own experiences as a mentor in this program, I’ve learned so much about some of these challenges, and have found that discussing them with my mentee has helped me grow as a scholar and teacher too. I have seen them find their own voice in the process, in things as specific as how to prepare a job application, but also in broader goals, such as developing research projects that explore the global human experience with music, in which minority voices have become increasingly important. I have been proud to have been part of this process too, and hope other senior mentors will be able to experience the same, by joining this initiative.”