Learn About Volunteer Opportunities with CRA-WP
By Susan Rodger, Co-Chair CRA-WP and Soha Hassoun, Future Co-Chair CRA-WP
CRA-WP is running virtual sessions this fall to describe volunteer opportunities for researchers in computing (Academics and those in Industry/government labs) and graduate students in computing to help with CRA-WP programs. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer and learning more about such opportunities, fill out our volunteer form and we will send you information on the virtual volunteer information sessions.
CRA-WP’s mission is to widen the participation and improve access, opportunities, and positive experiences of individuals from populations that are underrepresented in computing research and education. We need researchers to supervise undergraduates in summer research, and to mentor junior researchers and graduate students in our in-person mentoring workshops. We need graduate students to mentor undergraduates in our summer research program. We provide mentor training for the volunteer opportunities for both researchers and graduate students.
Researchers (both academics and those in industry or labs) are needed as volunteer panelists and mentors for our in-person Grad Cohort for Women and Grad Cohort for IDEALS Workshops for a weekend every spring for graduate students who identify as female or who are in an underrepresented group in computing. Topics for the panels include skills to survive and succeed in graduate school such as networking, visibility, choosing a research topic, and balancing life and work. Senior researchers are also needed as panelists and mentors for our early and mid Career Mentoring Workshops (CMW) for junior researchers. Topics for those panels include advancing in your career, managing up and down, and many more topics.
Faculty volunteers are needed to supervise undergraduates in our Distributed Research for Undergraduates (DREU) program. Here is how that program works. Both faculty and undergraduates apply and are matched for the student to participate at the faculty’s institution for 10 weeks in the summer. The student’s institution could be the same as the faculty’s or it could be different. Faculty are encouraged to support students or apply for an REU, and CRA-WP funding is provided for those without funding.
We have indirect volunteer activities for graduate students in computing. They can encourage their faculty research advisor to apply for the DREU program to do research with undergraduates, and then the graduate student can be a volunteer by being a mentor to those undergraduates doing research through the DREU program.
Sign up to be a CRA-WP Volunteer and then attend one of our virtual sessions to learn more.
