On 26 April, 2022, the luncheon gathering of Staff Mentoring Pilot Program (SMPP) was held by the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) at UIC Faculty Club. Around 22 pairs of mentors (experienced faculty) and mentees (newly joining lecturers and assistant professors), as well as Open Classroom Initiative (OCI) course instructors, in total over 50 faculty members attended this Luncheon Gathering.

The luncheon gathering at UIC Faculty Club

The SMPP is to provide one-on-one mentorship for newly joining junior teaching staff to foster their professional development and career growth within the respective programs during the first year at UIC. A total of 64 colleagues were involved in SMPP 2021-2022. Feedback from some mentors and mentees indicates that the SMPP has brought great help to new comers especially those from different culture and geographic backgrounds. Mentees have opportunities to meal with their mentors and learn experiences through informal conversation from time to time. Topics discussed diverse from research, proposal writing, teaching and communication skills to how to adapt to the culture in China and more.

Mentors and mentees having meals and discussing

During the luncheon gathering, the Vice-President (Academic) Prof. Huaxiong Huang presented the Certificate of Appreciation to Dr. Chai Lee Lim, Dr. Darren Weng, Dr. Milen Jissov, Dr. Uchenna Eze, Dr. Wei Jiang, Dr. Yi-Lung Kuo, Dr. Yuhui Deng, and Ms. Jue Wang to recognize their contributions to Open Classroom Initiative (OCI) in Semester 1 2021-2022. To promote teaching excellence at UIC, CTL has launched the OCI project, which provides our colleagues a safe space to learn and develop innovative and technological pedagogical practices from the exemplary colleagues who have demonstrated teaching excellence in their courses.

Course Instructors of OCI being awarded with Certificate of Appreciation

Edited and Reported by CTL