Heather Brant; Rachel Keith; Robert Weston Siscoe; Lesley Walker
Journal
Teaching Philosophy
Abstract
Although the diversity of philosophy is increasing at the undergraduate level, there is still a significant gap between the percentage of underrepresented students that major in philosophy and the percentage that complete PhDs. With the support of a seed grant from the American Philosophical Association, we created four chapters of a mentoring program that provided underrepresented undergraduates with support for considering and applying to graduate school. After completing a year of the program, the majority of surveyed mentees reported that they had an increased sense of belonging within philosophy, were more likely to take additional philosophy classes, were more likely to apply to graduate school in philosophy, and were more likely to pursue a career that has some connection to philosophy. In this paper, we consider not only the benefits of the program, but also provide a guide for those who are considering creating mentoring programs at their home institutions.
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