College Council is launching its Take Your TA To Lunch program, an expansion of its Take Your Professor To Lunch program.
The Take Your TA To Lunch program is aimed at developing mentorship relationships between undergraduate and graduate students.
In the past, students have used the Take Your Professor To Lunch program to get to know and develop relationships with professors by taking them out to lunch on Grounds.
“Essentially you’re able to go to Monroe Hall, room 101, and pick up a dining card,” outgoing College Council President Henry Reynolds, a fourth-year College student, said. “And with that card you’re able to treat a professor to lunch — you can go anywhere on Grounds.”
Reynolds said the Take Your TA to Lunch program will essentially be the same as Take Your Professor to Lunch, including using a dining card attached to College Council funds to pay for the meal, with a $15-per-person limit.
College Council aims to make it easier for undergraduate and graduate students to connect, Reynolds said, as graduate students can offer valuable advising to undergraduates.
“We’re focusing more on graduate student TAs because we really want to focus on mentorship,” Reynolds said.
Associate Dean of Students Aaron Laushway has supported College Council in reaching out to graduate students to develop this new program and said graduate students can be treasured advisors to undergraduate students.
“[Undergraduates] take them to lunch, get to know them better and continue the good conversations they have, and strengthen their mentoring relationships,” Laushway said.
Additionally, College Council aims to reinforce the University’s advising network with the new program.
“We are hoping that this will tie into the University’s greater advising initiatives,” Reynolds said.
Laushway said he hopes this program will provide an opportunity for undergraduates to recognize and express gratitude towards graduate students who have proven to be mentors.
“I think it's a recognition that our graduate students are students but they’re also teachers and guides and mentors,” Laushway said. “I hope it becomes a tradition.”
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