Registration for Spring 2025 EnCircle has ended. Registration for Fall 2025 will open in late spring.

What is EnCircle?

EnCircle, derived from mentoring circle, is designed to support CSU faculty members through a mentorship network across a variety of disciplines and appointment types. The program is open to faculty of all identities and career stages (tenured, pre-tenure, continuing, contract, and adjunct faculty). This is the seventh year of the program, and previous EnCircle members are welcome to participate again. 

Mentoring circles are small groups of colleagues who mentor each other on a variety of topics under the direction of a skilled professional facilitator. Members support each other as a nonlinear network, from junior members to senior, from senior to junior, and across disciplines and appointment types. EnCircle cohorts meet six times over the course of one semester.

How to join

Registration for the Spring 2025 EnCircle session is now closed. Registration for the Fall 2025 session will open in late spring. 

Background on mentoring circles

Mentoring circles in institutions of higher education are known to create job satisfaction, provide support and a sense of belonging, support tenure and promotion, and help members feel comfortable in the higher education profession (Thomas, M., Bystydzienski, J., and Desai, A. 2014. “Changing Institutional Culture through Peer Mentoring of Women STEM Faculty,” Innovative Higher Education 40: 143-157).

Mentoring circles are composed of small groups of faculty members representing different departments, career stages, and experiences who meet on a regular basis to discuss shared topics of interest under the guidance of a trained facilitator. Topics of interest are varied and might include administrative processes, culture and equity, research collaborations, work-life balance, and professional support with feedback, among others (“Best Practices for Mentoring Early-Career Faculty,” the University of Wisconsin-Madison).

EnCircle is intended to increase job satisfaction, motivation, and productivity and stimulate creativity and collaboration. The program supplements the more grassroots and specialized mentoring programs that have emerged within departments and disciplines. Mentoring circles that integrate faculty from across the university are likely to spur relationships and collaborations, which in turn can facilitate interdisciplinary scholarship and nurture best practices for supporting faculty. Mentoring circle practices are crucial in supporting careers at all stages, are especially beneficial to faculty with historically minoritized identities, and can transform our institutions to achieve better professional outcomes for all.

EnCircle is a program originally developed by the Council for Gender Equity on the Faculty and is now run through Faculty Success by a small team of CSU faculty with generous support from the CSU Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President.

What can you expect from participation in a mentoring circle?

  • Six meetings over one semester, 1.5 hours each

  • Support for career advancement

  • Support for work-life balance

  • Discussions of professional development

  • Intellectual engagement

  • Professional feedback

  • Peer-to-peer mentorship in a variety of topics

  • An improved sense of support and belonging at CSU

What types of topics will be discussed during mentoring sessions? 

  • Climate and culture in the workplace

  • Balancing life and work

  • Professional advancement: tenure and/or promotion

  • Collaboration between junior and senior faculty members

  • Administrative processes

  • Working with today’s student population

  • Balancing productivity in research with service

  • Getting respect in the classroom

  • Managing difficult colleagues

EnCircle Leadership Team

Sagarika Sarma
Facilitator

Meara Faw
Facilitator

Jen Dawrs
Program Chair

Sue James
Advisor

Carmen Rivera
Advisor

Monique Rocca
Advisor and program co-founder

Ruth Hufbauer
Advisor and program co-founder

Marsha Benedetti
Advisor