Diversity Mentorship Program and Resources

The Diversity Mentorship Program (DMP) is a program created by the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine with the goal of connecting  medical students from underrepresented/minoritized groups to faculty mentors who are able to support and assist them in their educational and professional growth and development. The program is administered by the faculty’s Office of Inclusion and Diversity.

For the purposes of the DMP, underrepresented/minoritized groups are identified as those who have been historically marginalized and/or underrepresented in Medicine in Canada. The Faculty of Medicine’s Diversity Statement also highlights specific groups in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) who are underrepresented in Medicine based on their level of representation in the general GTA population. Groups who will be considered for this program include students who identify as Indigenous, racialized, LGBTQ2S, first in family to attend university, disabled, economically disadvantaged, and/or from a minoritized faith group, amongst other groups and communities. (Note that the term racialized refers to all non-white people, and is a term often preferred to 'people of colour' or 'racial minority' because it acknowledges the social process by which race is constructed

The main purpose of this program is to ensure that all students entering the Faculty of Medicine are able to explore their full potential as learners and as potential members of the medical profession. The Faculty of Medicine is responsible for organizing the mentorship match between student/mentee and faculty member/mentor. Student mentees who are matched with a mentor are then encouraged to take leadership in the relationship to ensure that they are able to get the most value from their experience.

For Medical Student Mentees

Dear U of T MD students: please note that the application period for the 2019-2020 DMP ended in September 2019. It will open again in August 2020.  

If you are a U of T MD student from an underrespresented/minoritized group, you can still apply to be a mentee in the 2019/2020 DMP program by filling out this online form ;although the offical application period is ended, we will do out best to still match you with a mentor. Although we will do our best to match you with a mentor that meets your specifications and preferences, we cannot guarantee matching you with a physician with the same social identity as yours.  However, we do our utmost to ensure that the match is most suitable for both mentor and mentee.

The following are the roles and responsibilities of DMP mentees:

• To sign an agreement to be a mentee for a period of 1 academic year (October 2019-May 2020) unless due to extraordinary circumstances the student is unable to continue the relationship; agreement will specify roles and responsibilities of the student
• To invest, at the very least, 1-2 hours of in-person meeting time with mentor each term of the academic year (as much face-time as possible is encouraged)
• To communicate regularly with mentor via email and/or telephone, or other agreed-upon methods of communication on an as needed basis
• To respond to requests for progress and updates from the Diversity Office in each term
• To provide feedback for the purposes of evaluating the DMP program at the end of the match.

For Faculty Mentors

Any faculty physicians who are interested in equity, diversity, inclusion and being an ally to marginalized and underrepresented learners in medicine are eligible to apply. Mentor applications for the 2019-2020 program are now closed. To indicate your intest in mentoring in the 2020-2021 DMP, you can fill out this application of interest form to be contacted when the 2020-2021 applications open in July 2020.

The following are the roles and responsibilities of DMP mentors:

• To sign an agreement to mentor a medical student for a period of 1 academic year (September 2019-May 2020) which clearly states role, responsibilities, objectives and expectations
• To invest, at the very least, 1-2 hours of in-person meeting time with mentee each term of the academic year (as much face-time as possible is encouraged)
• To communicate regularly with mentee via email and/or telephone, or other agreed-upon method of communication on an as needed basis
• To provide mentee with guidance in identified areas, depending on the needs of the mentee
• To respond to requests for progress and updates from the Office of Inclusion and Diversity in each term
• To provide feedback for the purposes of evaluating the DMP program at the half-way point of the program and at the end of the match

Contact

Should you have any further questions about the Diversity Mentorship Program, please contact Shannon Giannitsopoulou, Program Coordinator, Office of Inclusion and Diversity, at 416-978-7398 or medicine.dmp@utoronto.ca.