POWER – Bay Area is a mentoring program and workshop series for Bay Area community college students interested in the physical sciences. POWER intends to support women and students from other marginalized genders, but we welcome participation from anyone who feels they would benefit.
The program is organized by graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from the departments of Astronomy, Chemistry, Earth & Planetary Sciences, and Physics at UC Berkeley.
Current community college students are paired with a mentor with whom they will meet approximately monthly during the academic year. In addition, we host a series of workshops and community building events, both on Zoom and in person. Signup details are below.
Why should you join POWER?
You’ll spend time with role models and connect with a network of peers who are also studying physical sciences. Not only will it feel great to have a community with shared ambitions to yours, this concretely improves your ability to set and achieve goals in your scientific career. You’ll participate in events, get to know each other on our Slack workspace, get lab tours from mentors, and meet current & aspiring scientists that you can relate to!
Mentoring Program
For the mentoring component of POWER, you will be matched with a graduate student or postdoctoral fellow who works in the Physical Sciences at UC Berkeley. You will meet one-on-one with your mentor approximately monthly during the academic year. Most of these meetings will be virtual, but each mentor-mentee pair has the option to meet for an in-person coffee (funded by POWER) once per semester. The mentor-mentee meetings are a great opportunity to discuss topics such as choosing classes, the transfer process, undergraduate research/internships, and applying to graduate school. Additionally, these meetings will allow you to learn about your mentor’s personal experience in academia and STEM and about how they have navigated challenges as they’ve advanced through their career.
Who are the mentors?
The POWER mentors are graduate students and postdoctoral fellows (postdocs) at UC Berkeley. Most of our graduate student mentors are working towards a PhD, which is a degree someone can get after a bachelor’s degree that prepares them for a career doing research. The degree involves a mix of classes and research. It varies by department, but generally, 1-3 years are spent taking classes and the remainder of the time is spent doing research under the supervision of a UC Berkeley professor. The program takes about 5-7 years to complete. During this time, PhD students are either paid to do research or to work as a teaching assistant. This position also covers the cost of the PhD program, so getting a PhD doesn’t cost students anything and students receive a salary that covers their expenses.
Postdocs are early career researchers who recently received their PhD. A postdoc position usually lasts 1-3 years and is designed to prepare researchers to be a professor. Postdocs still work either under the guidance of a professor or with an industry research lab, but they have more responsibilities and freedom than graduate students. They rarely teach and do not take classes, so all of their time is devoted to their research. An aspiring researcher will generally complete 1-2 postdocs before applying for professorship positions.
Workshops
Every year, we offer a series of informational and community-building events, both in person and over Zoom. The in person events will take place on the UC Berkeley campus and feature panel discussions, lab tours, and get-to-know-each-other activities.
Our informational events will include:
- Cultivating your support network
- Transferring to UCs and CSUs
- Financial aid opportunities
- Careers in the physical sciences
Throughout these events, we hope you will meet relatable scientific role models and form a network with your POWER peers!
Important Dates: Spring 2026
Form deadlines:
February 11: Sign-up form due
Events:
February 21, 10:00 AM: Mentee Meetup
April: Spring 2026 retreat @ UC Berkeley
How to Join POWER
Please fill out this short interest form if you are interested in POWER! This will add you to our mailing list.
After you sign up, you will receive a more detailed form used for mentor pairing. You must fill out the mentor pairing form to get matched with a mentor. If you have questions regarding this process, feel free to drop them in the “questions” section of this sign-up form or fill out our contact form below.
POWER is intended for participants 18 and over. If you’re under 18 and interested in participating, please reach out to the coordinators using the contact form below.
Spring 2026 Roadmap
Questions?
Use this Google form to email our coordinators:
We are a student group acting independently of the University of California. We take full responsibility for our organization and this web site.
