Union College Future Professors Program

This program is a continuation at Union College of the Educational Leadership Corps previously funded by the Ford Foundation and the members of the Hudson Mohawk Association of Colleges & Universities.

In the 2000-2001 academic year, the Committee on Teaching, in consultation with the Dean of the Faculty and the Associate Dean of Students who is the Future Professors Program Administrator, prepared the current program description and guidelines.

The mission of the Future Professors Program is to recruit students who might not otherwise have considered an academic career into the profession of academia. It is the hope that participation in this program will give students an insight into the profession and have an impact on their goals and plans for the future. It is the intent to have the student be exposed to most of the facets of academia through participation in this program.

There are three distinct components of the Future Professors Program:

Students chosen as Future Professors are expected to participate actively in all three components of the program.

Students will begin research and tutoring in the summer before their senior year. Students will receive a $3000 stipend for their summer work plus on-campus housing for the summer. During the academic year, the research component will be the student's senior thesis or project and will be performed for two or three terms of academic credit (whichever is appropriate in the student's academic discipline). The teaching component will require a total time commitment of at least 10 hours per week during the academic year. Students chosen for the program will receive a stipend of $2000 for their teaching-related work. As a result, students in the Future Professors program are not permitted to hold additional work-study jobs on campus.

Application deadline for the 2009-2010 academic year Future Professors Program: March 12, 2009.

Note: Because we anticipate funding only three students through the Future Professors Program, we strongly encourage applicants to work with their faculty mentors to submit applications for Union College Summer Research Fellowships, also. That program, which is administered by Prof. Kristin M. Fox, Director of Undergraduate Research, funds summer research only (it does not include academic year components like those of the Future Professors Program) and had a Feb. 12 deadline. Please note that a student may not accept summer research stipends from both programs.

Future Professor (Student) Eligibility:
Because the goal of the program is to encourage promising students to pursue an academic career, successful applicants will be students who have achieved academic success at Union College. This program is designed for students who are interested in learning more about the profession of academia and who come from an economically disadvantaged background and/or are a first-generation college student, have a primary language other than English, come from a single-parent household, reside within a city with a population greater than 500,000. Eligible juniors with GPA of 3.0 and above are invited to apply for the 2008-2009 Future Professors Program. A student with GPA below 3.0 may apply, if nominated for participation by two faculty members.

Faculty Mentor Eligibility:
Full-time senior (tenured or tenurable) faculty members and tenure-track faculty members beyond the reappointment review are eligible to serve as mentors if they meet the following additional requirements:

  • The faculty mentor must be willing to supervise the student's summer research and the senior thesis or project during the academic year. The faculty mentor must be committed to assisting the student in identifying and preparing applications to appropriate graduate institutions. Each faculty mentor must be available to meet with the student in the program on a weekly basis for 8 weeks in the summer and throughout the academic year.
  • Because of the teaching aspect of the program, the faculty mentor must be teaching during at least two of the three terms of the academic year.

Participation as a mentor in the Future Professors program is time-intensive. In addition to performing the normal tasks associated with advising a senior thesis or senior project student, the faculty mentor works closely with the student on a teaching project, reviews drafts of Future Professors reports carefully, and is involved significantly in the student's investigation of and application to graduate programs. The faculty mentor will receive compensation in the amount of $500 for the summer and $1000 for the academic year. The faculty mentor may elect to take this compensation as salary or in the form of research funds to be placed in a Union College account.

Program Requirements:
The minimum requirements for continuation in the program are listed on the following pages: Research, Teaching, & Professional Development. This program is designed to be challenging, and the requirements are substantial. Additional activities are also suggested and encouraged. Individual faculty mentors may require their students to participate in some of these additional activities, or in other activities of the faculty mentor's choosing.

During the course of the year, the student will submit four reports: the first at the end of the summer, two end-of-term reports for the fall and winter terms, and the final report at the end of the spring term. Details regarding the format and contents of these reports can be found on the Report Guidelines page. These reports must be approved by the faculty mentor prior to their submission to the Future Professors Program administrator.

Click here for information on recent participants in the Future Professors Program

For more information, contact Kristin Fox, Chemistry Department (foxk@union.edu) or Trish Williams, Dean of Students Office (williamt@union.edu, x6061).