As a brand new program, the Mentoring Meals Initiative is launched in Spring 2026, Session 4 to enhance communication and collaboration between senior and junior faculty members at DKU. Faculty Affairs will provide prepaid meal cards for faculty members to have one-on-one meal discussions of professional development. We expect such Mentoring Meals will allow faculty to gain teaching strategies, advices on research and publishing, research collaboration opportunities, or other aspects of career development.

The Meantoring Meals are for pairs of junior and senior DKU faculty members, such as assistant and associate professor, or lecturer and senior lecturer. Once you and your colleague decided to join a Mentoring Meal and both of you filled out the survey (https://duke.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_agTDuglbplblTiS), as a pair you will receive a prepaid card valued at 100 RMB. Anytime before May 22, 2026, you can use it for meals and drinks in the DKU Community Center Cafeteria.

This initiative targets a total of 50 faculty members (25 pairs). The pair of faculty will be contacted the following week after a successful registration. In the next academic year, the Mentring Meals Initiative will make another call which will last two sessions.