Catalyst Program mentor applications now open!

The Catalyst Program is a virtual projects program for undergraduates interested in highly impactful work. Students will work with a mentor on a project in a cause area like global health and development, AI safety, or animal welfare. Mentor applications are now open until August 14th. This fall, the program will run from September 28th to December 7th.

Catalyst is inspired by programs like CHIRP, RIO, and IRI. Unlike them, we are interested in connecting mentors to students at universities across the globe. Mentors in the program can be anyone with experience working in their cause area. This includes grad students, highly experienced undergraduates, and professionals. The projects you propose should be virtual and achievable by a team of ambitious students, but beyond that, we’re excited to see a variety of projects.

We think you’ll find mentorship valuable if any of these are true for you:

• You want to expand your capacity to do useful work.
• You want to develop your project management skills.
• You want to connect with early career talent and guide their development.
• You have work in your backlog that you don’t have the time to do yourself.

If you’re unsure whether mentorship will be a good use of your time, we would be happy to have a call to discuss the program further. If you are uncertain about the quality of mentees you’ll work with, we still strongly encourage you to apply. The mentor application is designed to be fairly short, and you’ll be free to pull out if none of the mentee applicants meet your bar.

An undergraduate projects program like ours relies in part on the genuine capacity it can provide and in part on the goodwill of more senior talent. If you’re interested in being a mentor, we’re grateful for your desire to help the broader talent pipeline.

Apply here to be a mentor by August 14th, Anywhere on Earth.