FAQs

General

For Mentees

For Mentors

General FAQs:

Who can be a mentee in the MAGIC program? 

Mentees from any underrepresented or historically marginalized group are invited to participate. This includes people with disabilities, first-generation college students and individuals from low-income backgrounds. If you are unsure whether you are a good fit for the program, there is no harm in filling out the sign-up form! 

The MAGIC program is not just for UConn students or to those who are considering UConn for their doctoral degree. If you are considering applying to a doctoral program, no matter where you are from, or where (or when!) you are considering applying — you can still sign up for MAGIC! And feel free to share this flier advertising our program with anyone who might be interested!

Who can be a mentor in the MAGIC program? 

If you are a UConn graduate student, postdoctoral fellow, or faculty member doing research in any of the fields that MAGIC currently covers (Psychological Sciences, Cognitive Science, Neurosciences [including Cognitive, Animal and Human] or a related area [e.g., Linguistics or Speech and Hearing Sciences]), then we’d love to have you join as a mentor! Many of our mentees are interested in Clinical Psychology, so we especially welcome mentors in clinical areas.

What is the time commitment?

It’s up to you! You have the option of being matched with a specific mentor/mentee who you would meet with at what every frequency you agree on.  Also, mentees can use the mentoring platform and resources as much or as little as they like. Similarly, Mentors who choose to be available on the platform can set their mentoring availability on the platform to whatever they have time for (e.g., 1 hr per week, 1 hr per month, etc.)

How do I join? 

If you’d like to be a mentee (receive advice) or a mentor (give advice), please fill out this form.

After you fill out one of the above forms, we will either match you with a mentor/mentee (if you selected this option) or, if you indicated that you would like to schedule meetings on an as-need basis, we will email you a unique registration link that when used, will automatically add you to the MAGIC mentoring platform. If you have any questions, email us at magic.initiative@uconn.edu.

Why is MAGIC currently limited to certain fields (Psychological Sciences and adjacent fields)?

The MAGIC program was developed by members of the UConn SLACIBACS and Neurobiology of Language communities. Because we work in Psychological Sciences and adjacent areas, we are starting the program in our own fields. We hope that others will join us in the future!

What is the relationship between MAGIC and UConn’s Husky Mentor Network?

After piloting the MAGIC program in 2020, we felt that mentees would benefit from being able to  search for mentors on their own, meet with more than one mentor, and easily request meetings with mentors. We therefore created a specific program (open only to our community of mentors and mentees) within an existing mentoring platform at UConn called the Husky Mentor Network. In 2022, we are also providing the option of being matched with  specific mentor/mentee.

If a meeting on the Husky Mentor Network is scheduled for a certain duration (e.g., 30 min), will it automatically stop when the time is up? 

No. You may notice a countdown timer appear during your meeting, but the meeting will not be terminated at the end of the countdown. The meeting will continue until you manually end it.

 

FAQs for Mentees:

How do I find mentors? 

If you asked to be matched with a specific mentor, then we will send you an email with their contact information! If you are looking for a mentor on the mentoring platform, you’ll find that the the Husky Mentor Network has a built-in matching algorithm, so you’ll see a match percentage in the top right corner of each mentor. These are just suggestions based on the specific information provided in your profile—you can request to meet with whomever you’d like. We suggest you use the search function to enter keywords such as, “cognitive” or “Autism” to find matches based on research interests, etc. 

I’m having trouble finding an appropriate mentor. Can you help?

Yes! Please email us at magic.initiative@uconn.edu if you’d like a suggestion from us. 

After I find a mentor, can I meet with them on a platform outside of the Husky Mentor Network (e.g., Zoom)? 

Yes, this is fine. Mentors may prefer to meet using another platform. If so, they will message you. 

How often can I search for a mentor and request a meeting on the platform? 

As often as you’d like! Availability is always changing (if a mentor is booked solid for the month, they will be unavailable for you to view) and we are always adding new mentors into the program. 

When I click on a mentor profile, I do not see an option to select a meeting time. 

Some people may experience this glitch when using a browser such as Safari. Please click in the blank space to the right of the profile and you should be able to see the booking window. If this does not work, try using an alternative browser like Google Chrome. 

My meeting invitations are expiring – why? 

This can happen for several reasons. Once a mentee sends a meeting request, the mentor must select (if given options) and approve the meeting time. Only then will the meeting be scheduled. A meeting is more likely to be accepted if it’s requested a few days in advance as our mentors are all active faculty and grad students who may not check their email as frequently as they’d like to. If you are having trouble connecting with a specific mentor, please email us at: magic.initiative@uconn.edu. Alternatively, you can try requesting a meeting with one of our other mentors.

I no longer need the program and would like to be removed from the email list. What should I do?

Please email us at magic.initiative@uconn.edu and we can remove you from our list.

 

FAQs for Mentors:

I want to be a mentor, but I’m unsure about the time commitment. Should I sign up?

Yes! You can mentor as many students as you have time for. You have the option of being matched with a specific mentee (or more than one if you like), and/or joining the MAGIC program within the Husky Mentor Network mentoring platform. When you sign up on Husky Mentor Network, you can specify your availability for meetings, for example, Saturday mornings only. You can always edit your availability under your profile to either accept fewer meetings per month or set an “out of the office” period during which your profile will be unavailable for mentees to view.

How will I know someone wants to meet with me?

If you opted to be matched with a specific mentee, you and your mentee will agree on a meeting time. If you are part of the Husky Mentor Network, then when a meeting request is made, you will receive an email to accept or decline the meeting. When you log-in to Husky Mentor Network , you will see the notification. You can also sync your other calendars with Husky Mentor Network.

I joined the Husky Mentor Network, but no one has asked to meet with me yet — is something wrong?

Mentees will request meetings as needed and based on their research interests. Including more detail in your profile, especially about your research interests in the “About me” field (here are some examples), can help mentees find you, and help the matching algorithm suggest you to them. Also try checking your availability – your profile may be set to away or your availability may be too limited. Finally,  including a photo in your profile is always helpful.

A mentee requested up to meet with me, but I don’t think I am a good fit. Should I still meet with them?

Yes! They may be exploring their options or are interested in meeting with you because of something you put in your profile. 

Can I meet with mentees on a platform outside of the Husky Mentor Network (e.g., Zoom)? 

Yes this is perfectly fine. If you plan to do this, please message the mentee to provide meeting details. 

If I join as a mentor, will I be available to any mentee in the Husky Mentor Network

This is up to you. By default you will only be available to mentees in the MAGIC program. However, during sign-up, UConn faculty and graduate students can opt-in to the entire Husky Mentor Network if they’d also like to mentor UConn students and alumni outside of the MAGIC program. 

How do I reduce or increase my availability? 

Go to your Husky Mentor Network profile and under availability, you are able to adjust the number of meetings you’d like to accept on a monthly basis. You can also edit the dates/times you are available. 

My meeting invitations are expiring – why? 

This can happen for several reasons. Once a mentee sends a meeting request, the mentor must select (if given options) and approve the meeting time. Only then will the meeting be scheduled. Sometimes mentees send requests for meetings with short notice (e.g., less than one day in advance). In these cases, if you don’t respond to the request before the requested meeting time, the invitation will expire. We have advised mentees that this is a risk when making meeting requests at short notice. When invitations do expire, we encourage you to send a chat to the mentee who requested the meeting to encourage them to send you another request with more notice (there will be a chat link in the email that notifies you of the expiration) .

I don’t have time to mentor anymore.

You can always edit your availability in Husky Mentor Network to either accept fewer meetings or set an “out of the office” period during which your profile will be unavailable for mentees to view. If you don’t foresee having time to mentor in the future, please email us at magic.initiative@uconn.edu and we can either remove you from the MAGIC program or delete your entire Husky Mentor Network profile.