Mentor Award Program
Supporting faculty in advancing mentorship
The David Geffen School of Medicine’s Global Health Program (GHP) is excited to offer funding for faculty who mentor medical students on global health projects throughout the Global Health Equity Pathway. We recognize that in order to create opportunities for students, mentors often use their own resources to support student projects (e.g., hiring local research assistants or translators, paying for in-country transportation, supplies, etc.). The goal of the mentor award is to offset some of these costs and assist mentors in providing students with high-quality global health experiences.
GHP is appreciative of the time and effort that global health mentors dedicate to our students, who benefit greatly from close mentor/mentee relationships and the experience of working in global settings. Mentor awards are provided in the range of $500–$2,000, and mentors are eligible to receive one award per student each year that the mentor is actively engaged in mentorship. Successful applicants will receive a direct transfer of their award amount from GHP; it is the responsibility of the awardee to ensure funds are transferred to the host country organization/partner, if applicable.
Please note, the Mentor Award Program will be changing for students starting with the C/O 2028. Please be on the lookout for more information in the Fall of 2024.
Awards cannot be used to cover direct student costs (i.e. flights/travel, housing, meals, incidentals), as these costs should be adequately covered by the funding the student receives from the Dean’s Office and GHP. Awards can, however, be used to offset some of the indirect costs of hosting a DGSOM student at a global site and/or facilitating a student's global project from here in LA. At the time of application, mentors will be asked to provide an estimated budget and justification to explain how these costs will support the student’s research project. The total amount of funding awarded will be contingent on several factors, including GHP’s budget for mentor awards, the number of mentor applicants, and the level of need (as expressed in the brief application). It is possible to receive an award for only part of the requested amount.
To qualify for this award, a mentor must be a full-time UCLA faculty member and be the mentor of a DGSOM student (the UCLA mentor may send award funds to the partner site, if appropriate).
For costs related to research and active data collection, both UCLA and global site IRB approvals must be obtained and provided to GHP before funds will be released to the mentor. If IRB is not required for data collection, the mentor must provide an explanation for this in the application.
Awards are granted on a rolling basis.
Please review the eligibility requirements carefully and if eligible, complete this Qualtrics form.
If you have questions or concerns regarding eligibility, please email Dr. Traci Wells at TWells@mednet.ucla.edu. Please email Ms. Vijeta Vaswani at VVaswani@mednet.ucla.edu after you have submitted the Qualtrics form so that she can process your award request.