To the UC Davis Community:
 
Today marks the beginning of the most exciting weekend of the year, as we celebrate a class of just over 8,000 students poised to continue their incredible growth and impact in careers and graduate schools with a diploma from UC Davis in hand.
 
As they step onto the stage, they understand that learning is not just about acquiring individual knowledge. It's about forging connections with mentors who expand knowledge, open new avenues of thinking and encourage students to transcend the boundaries they set for themselves.
 
My own career would have looked very different without the support of my mentors, and it would have been so much less fulfilling without the opportunities I’ve had to work with rising scholars like those in our Leadership Job Shadow program. Recognizing the power of intergenerational mentorship, I am honored to support the Professor Emeritus Augustine O. Esogbue and Chancellor Gary May Endowed Award in Engineering Diversity, which will support excellence and inclusion for graduate students in engineering and computer science.
 
At UC Davis, meaningful research is at the heart of the undergraduate experience. We empower students to translate knowledge from the classroom into practical skills that the workforce and graduate schools demand. Mentors are present every step of the way, from the student resource centers that connect students to opportunities, to the professors, postdoctoral scholars and graduate students who welcome them onto their teams.
 
Margaux Bautista, a transfer student and biotechnology major who will continue her work as a doctoral student at UC Davis, says that her mentors were always there to answer her “limitless questions.” Her research in the Simmons Lab focuses on creating a safer food system for farm workers and the environment by employing biosolarization. This technique combats pathogens and pests in fields using organic matter, solar heat and microbes as alternatives to chemical fumigants. She says that mentors were invaluable, from the moment she tested her work in a lab Mason jar to when she deployed it in the field.
 

Building potential

We know that mentored students are more likely to complete a college degree. Mentors help first-generation students navigate the complexities of university life, expand their knowledge and interests to unlock their full potential and guide them through meaningful research projects that allow students to take calculated risks. We are committed to helping our students find and build those relationships.
 
Mentors prepare Aggies to address the significant challenges we face, whether building a more sustainable future, improving health or envisioning innovations that will drive humanity’s progress. They believe in their protégés when they experience imposter syndrome, encouraging them to see that failure and experimentation are at the heart of growth.
 
Bayleigh Baldwin, who graduated in March with degrees in linguistics and Spanish, plans to pursue her doctorate in linguistics next fall at the University of Kansas. In the CARE Lab, she helped develop a coding system to transcribe speech patterns for autistic students. She describes the inclusive lab as a place where everyone’s ideas had value — from undergraduates to professors — and says her fieldwork working with autistic students in Sacramento was the “real magic” of her experience at UC Davis, as she experienced how research can make an immediate impact in the lives of students.
 
As Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics Chang-il Hwang, who recently won the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring Undergraduate Research, notes, mentors are inspired by the ideas students bring to their labs. He says that students’ curiosity reminds him of his journey, mistakes and all. Mentoring allowed him to share these experiences, helping them become better scientists. In the end, these students remind him of why he chose his career path.
 
Emily Barson, who will graduate next year with a degree in cellular biology, credits mentorship with helping her realize her path. Working in the laboratory with Professor Aldrin Gomes, whose research is featured in our “From Labs to Lives” series, Barson shifted her plans from a pre-med track. After working on lab experiments and gaining the experience of contributing to a book about the potential health impacts of ibuprofen in the Gomes Lab, Barson realized she could make the most significant contribution to health in the biotech industry.

Mentorships in cutting-edge labs

Our undergraduate students experience unique opportunities for mentorship in labs working at the frontiers of knowledge, sometimes conducting independent research projects under the guidance of professors and graduate students.
 
They are students like Fatimah Al-Musawi, a fourth-year genetics and genomics major who is graduating this weekend. As the first in her family to study a science field in college, she credits mentorship with opening doors that will lead her to medical school next fall. Working in Professor Hwang’s lab, she progressed from feeling unsure about the basics of lab research mechanics to developing the skills necessary to create cultures to help researchers better understand familial pancreatic cancer and offer hope for finding new treatments. She even presented her work at a major international conference — one of the few undergraduates to do so.
 
Varsha Gaddipati graduated in March with a degree in psychology. She will be attending Vanderbilt University to pursue her Master of Education in applied child studies with a concentration in pediatric health care. She aims to become a child life specialist for young people with medical complexities and technology dependence. The disability advocate drew on her experience as a student using accommodations to guide a novel study across the University of California. Her work evaluated the sense of belonging among undergraduate students with disabilities and the relationship between their disability identity and academic success. She credits her mentors and advocates in the Student Disability Center for recognizing and supporting the idea that centering her unique perspective, on her timeline, enhanced the research.

Career and academic readiness

These mentorship experiences are integral parts of our students’ preparation for employment and graduate schools, as their ability to navigate complex structures and produce independent work makes them highly marketable.
 
Kimberly Moniz and Lindsay Feyrer, both fourth-year students in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, say their experience with a mentor helped them overcome impostor syndrome.
 
As participants in the College of Engineering’s E-SEARCH program, they were paired with Ph.D. candidate Tim Linke in the program’s signature “speed dating” event, where mentors and proteges connect on a project.
 
Linke notes that the students had an experience unlike most undergraduates in the country. Instead of following a prescribed, scoped approach, Lindsay and Kimberly pursued inquiry-based research. Over time and with Tim’s mentorship, their work in molecular dynamics evolved to play a meaningful role in a study group with professors, postdoctoral researchers and graduate students.
 
Their sense of belonging grew as they conducted independent investigations, presenting their findings at major conferences as undergraduates and partnering with institutions like the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories to further develop their work.
 
Aishwarya Santosh, an international student graduating with a degree in marine and coastal sciences, says that every one of her research experiences stemmed from mentorship. She says her experience as an EVE Scholar helped her understand the distinct differences between marine and terrestrial research, as well as how to apply what she had learned in the classroom. During her 10-week summer research experience at the Bodega Marine Laboratory, she conducted both lab and fieldwork to gain a deeper understanding of how an introduced anemone species from the Southern Hemisphere was thriving in the waters off California.

Paying mentorship forward

Across our campus, students don’t just receive mentorship. As they build their skills and knowledge, they emerge as mentors for other undergraduate students, extending the guidance they received to students who follow.
 
Mason Johnstone, a biological sciences major who will pursue a master’s degree in public health at UC Davis, highlights the strong sense of community and belonging at our university and how mentorship comes full circle. He says that his experience as a peer tutor, primarily in Introduction to Biology, helped him understand the material far more deeply than when he learned it on his own. As a mentor, he helped students with the parts of the process that were unfamiliar to him when he arrived at college: the lab application process, building a CV and training for those first uncertain weeks in the lab, powering their success just as mentors did for him his first year.

As we come to the end of another academic year at UC Davis and celebrate the achievements of another exceptional class, we recognize that our graduates rely on a community of support to help them cross the stage. For many of our students, mentors are a vital part of that team. This network of support extends beyond individual mentors to the entire UC Davis community, which fosters a culture of mentorship and support that is integral to our students' success.
 
I encourage all our students to seek out mentors in labs, classrooms and workplaces. They’ll find people not only eager to guide them, but excited about the fresh perspectives and possibilities protégés bring to the table.
 
And for our graduates, let me add this final charge: As you move into a world of challenges, create a world of opportunity for the next generation of scholars and leaders. Become mentors to those who follow in your footsteps and share your skills, passion and knowledge with others.
 
It will enrich your communities and your own lives beyond measure.