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. 2024 Mar 1;27(1):80-84.
doi: 10.5770/cgj.27.700. eCollection 2024 Mar.

Advancing Gerontology through Exceptional Scholarship (AGES): a Mentorship Initiative for Early Career Faculty

Juanita-Dawne R Bacsu  1 , Zahra Rahemi  2 , Darina Petrovsky  3 , Justine S Sefcik  4 , Kris Pui Kwan Ma  5 , Zachary G Baker  6 , Matthew Lee Smith  7
Affiliations

Advancing Gerontology through Exceptional Scholarship (AGES): a Mentorship Initiative for Early Career Faculty

Juanita-Dawne R Bacsu et al. Can Geriatr J. .

Abstract

Mentorship is critical to supporting professional development and growth of new and emerging faculty members. Working with the Gerontological Society of America (GSA), we created the Advancing Gerontology through Exceptional Scholarship (AGES) Initiative as a mentorship model to promote productivity and peer support for new and early career faculty members. In this commentary, we highlight the AGES Program as a prototype to facilitate peer support, collective learning, and co-authorship opportunities to advance new and early career faculty members, especially in the field of aging. Moreover, we identify four crucial strategies that cultivated and refined our AGES Program including: i) ensuring flexibility to address mentee needs; ii) establishing check-ins and accountability to enhance productivity; iii) fostering peer support and collective learning; and iv) delivering motivational and educational activities. Drawing on our experience with the AGES Program, this commentary provides recommendations to support other groups looking to develop high-quality mentorship programs to support new and early career faculty members in academia.

Keywords: mentee; mentor; mentorship; model; peer support; productivity; professional growth.

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Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICT OF INTEREST DISCLOSURES: We have read and understood the Canadian Geriatrics Journal’s policy on conflicts of interest disclosure and declare the authors have no conflicts of interest.

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