Marilyn Gugliucci receives mentorship grant from Geronotological Society of America

Marilyn R. Gugliucci, Ph.D., director for Geriatrics Education and Research in the College of Osteopathic Medicine, along with two student colleagues, Candace Brown, Ph.D. candidate from Virginia Commonwealth University, and Lin (Helen) Jiang, Ph.D. candidate from University of Denver, has been awarded a grant by the Gerontological Society of America Mentoring Effect Committee.  The funding will support an innovative project, titled "The Mentoring Switch Project: Two Way Mentorship," which will be presented at the Gerontology Society of America (GSA) Scientific Annual Meeting in November of2015.

Select members of the GSA Emerging Scholar and Professional Organization (ESPO) and invited senior scholars will participate in this grant project.  The goal is to continue the cycle of learning by providing current mentors (often senior scholars) a chance to learn from emerging professionals (often recipients of mentorship). The key aim is to have emerging professionals (an ESPO Team) share their insights and experiences from their professional lives with senior scholars on specifically chosen topics: international aging, minority culture, technology/social media, interdisciplinary research, teaching methods and student needs.

This project will challenge the prevailing paradigms of mentorship, including mentee and mentor roles, expand the depth and breadth of mentorship and foster intergenerational and international communication. "The Mentoring Switch" was designed to be sustainable through establishing a work plan to foster future mentee/mentor "two way" collaborative efforts within GSA among students, emerging scholars and senior scholars.