Queer Mentoring and Peer Program

Note that applications are closed for 2023-2024!

What is QMPP?

In the beginning, QMPP sought to connect UW students (mentees) who are exploring their sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression with queer UW students, staff, faculty, and alumni (mentors) who have been there, can relate to, and have tips for living a happy and fulfilling life.

Now, QMPP is an evolving mentorship and peer program that actively seeks to queer the idea of mentorship. Within QMPP, we aim to address the perception of power differences within traditional mentorship programs and create an affirming space for shared learning and respect. All mentorship and peer groups directly inform the shape and structure of their group. This program upholds the statement, “conversations over contracts.”

The Queer Mentoring and Peer Program provides a safe, affirming, and exciting environment in which a mentee’s sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression is supported and celebrated by an educated and experienced mentor.

Through this program, you can expect to:

• Get matched one-on-one with someone based on your shared identities and interests
• Meet with your mentor/mentee twice a month and explore the joys, challenges, concerns, and questions about coming out, exploring their queer identity, and much more
• Attend campus and community events, and help to build your queer community

Within QMPP, we actively seek to queer how we understand mentorship. In such an initiative, we intentionally aim to expand how we understand our roles within a mentorship program. See below for how past participants have defined the available roles within QMPP for themselves.

The Roles

Mentor

• “Someone with expertise or experience in a certain area that is willing to provide guidance on a subject.”
• “Somebody who is more experienced within the community, with the community, who knows how to navigate, and explains how to navigate.”
• “Someone who holds the space for you.”

Mentee

• “Someone who wants to learn about themselves and the world around them in a comfortable and safe space.”
• “Someone who may look up to me, someone for whom I can create the space to learn and grow unabashedly and without shame. Someone who I can equally learn from though it may not be their responsibility to teach me.”
• “Someone looking for a space where they can be vulnerable, learn more about themself and others, and look for opportunities to grow.”

Peer

• “Someone to fail and succeed with.”
• “A relationship built on current commonality, someone(s) who may be experiencing things similar to me, someone who I can collaboratively create spaces with for the both of us to grow and learn with compassion.”
• “Someone with a mutual goal with something to contribute towards that goal in collaboration with others.”

At this time, we only have space for 30 applicants.  Applications closed on October 27th.  Applicants will be notified by October 27th. 

Applications!

If the embed doesn’t work on your phone, you can either ensure you’re logged into your UW email in your Chrome browser or follow this link.

Questions?

Contact us at qmppuw@gmail.com, and use the subject line “QMPP.”

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