There are so many ways to give back to your community.
If your passion is entrepreneurship and innovation, give back by becoming a MIN-Corps Mentor! Whether your background or experience is in STEM, healthcare, legal, startups, or just living an interesting life, your help could be invaluable to a research scientist who is just getting started. Fill out this linked form to get started!
Mentor Role Descriptions
MIN-Corps Gold Team Mentor
Gold Team Mentors function as a member of an NSF National I-Corps Team. They typically participate in all cohort activities. By being a third-party resource for the team, the mentor can help the team recognize and reduce confirmation bias during the customer discovery process. The Gold Team Mentor is typically someone that has industry contacts and knows the ecosystem of the target market area. Gold Team Mentors will typically spend 5-7 hours per week engaging with the team over a 7-week time period.
MIN-Corps Maroon Team Mentor
Maroon Team Mentors share their industry expertise and help with ecosystem map development, value proposition clarification, etc. The Maroon Team Mentor typically has strong knowledge of a specific industry vertical and can help guide teams as they learn about the space. Maroon Team Mentors typically spend 1-2 hours per week engaging with teams over a 5-8 week period.
MIN-Corps Micro Mentor
Micro Mentors engage with teams on an as-needed basis and may be experts in either technical industries or functional areas such as law, accounting, public relations, marketing, governmental regulations, etc., and they help teams navigate those spaces as the team explores their innovation or idea. Micro Mentors engage with teams approximately 1-2 hours per month on an as-needed basis.
MIN-Corps Mentor Moments
Mentors interested in providing Mentor Moments -- periodic or occasional sharing of expertise -- will spend approximately 1-2 hours per year engaging with teams.