Leadership and Mentorship Initiatives

Housed in the Center for Black Culture, the Academic STARS program is designed for newly enrolled African American undergraduate students. The STARS program, which stands for Students Achieving and Reaching Success, helps these students develop an academic foundation on which they can build during their years in college and beyond.

The Diversity Peer Academy pairs first-year Potomac State College students with peer mentors from the Black Student Alliance, Student Government Association, Honors Program, Honors Society and other student organizations. Participants are paired with a peer mentor of their identified gender but who is also from a different racial, regional, first-generation or socio-economic group.

Potomac State College students are invited to join this student organization.

The purpose of this Health Sciences Center Faculty Development program is to provide an objective advisory relationship for faculty that will complement the existing academic structure.

The Health Sciences and Technology Academy, known as HSTA, is a one-of-a-kind mentoring program in the state of West Virginia that helps participating high school students enter and succeed in STEM-based undergraduate and graduate degree programs.

Leadership and Organization Development, part of WVU Talent and Culture, offers WVU people leaders and staff the learning and development resources they need to enhance organizational effectiveness and positively impact engagement.

This virtual engagement panel presentation hosted by the VISTA Collaborative, in partnership with the WVU Center for Service and Learning, drew 189 participants and exemplified WVU’s ongoing commitment to learning and taking courageous actions to create a more equitable and appreciative experience in our various workplaces, college campuses, classrooms and communities.

Created with input from the Student Service Advisory Committee, the Mountaineer Volunteer Program (MVP) is a series of workshops that address the fundamental challenges to effective volunteering. MVP empowers students by providing, adapting and advancing diversified volunteer service experiences that enhance personal growth and civic-minded development.

Peer Advisors for Leadership mentor first-year students and assist with the First-Year Leadership Academy, an opportunity for new students to discover their leadership style, enhance leadership skills build meaningful relationships and learn about campus resources.

The Social Action Clinic seeks to support social change through the use of structured clinics for community-driven students. In 2020, with guided assistance from a team of experts, the Clinic supported 10 creative and ambitious campus change projects affecting WVU and the surrounding community.

The Office of Student Success offers mentoring programs for first-generation students, students of color, women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and any student who would like to be paired with a faculty or staff mentor.

The Office of Undergraduate Research connects undergraduate students who have strong and committed interests in research and creative endeavors to faculty members, programs and research-related opportunities aligned with their interests.

As is true in much of medicine and foundational science, women have been underrepresented in leadership roles, but the Women in Neuroscience Leadership Program will work to foster the development of current and future leaders. The program aims to improve the representation of women in leadership roles at WVU Medicine and in the WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute.

The Women’s Leadership Initiative empowers women in leadership roles by providing them the tools, resources, development opportunities and professional networks that will enable them to reach their full potential. Currently, there are 222 WLI members, a mix of faculty, staff and administrators. Membership is initiated by nomination.