Mentorship Program for Autism at the University of Calgary
Summary
The Mentorship Program for Autism at University of Calgary aims to support students with autism spectrum disorder to enhance their likelihood of academic success or obtain additional supports for learning social skills and addressing mental health challenges. This program is a peer-mentorship program involving both mentees (students with autism can sign up as mentees) and mentors (graduate students who support the mentees). This program provides flexible and individually-tailored supports to students with autism to accommodate individual student goals and needs.
Each mentee will be paired with an individual mentor with whom they will meet on a biweekly basis. Every month, one social (e.g., games night, pizza party) or workshop (e.g., organization and study skills, advocacy) event will be hosted to provide the students with autism with a network of peers including both mentees and mentors.
There is also an opportunity for mentees to participate in a research study for the mentorship program as well. If the mentees in the program decide that they wish to take part in the research study as well, they will be asked to fill out questionnaires and surveys for research purposes in order to better inform the program of how to best support UCalgary students on the spectrum. Participation in this research study is voluntary and the mentee may withdraw at any time and for any reason without jeopardizing his/her participation in the mentorship program. Mentees do not have to participate in the research to be part of the mentorship program. If mentees do choose to participate in the research study, their opinions and information would be of great value to our research.
Eligibility
Eligible gender: Male, Female, Transgender, Other
Accepts healthy participants: Yes
Inclusion criteria:
Eligibility Requirements:
1. Participants must be enrolled with the University of Calgary in any capacity (e.g., part-time or full-time student)
2. Participants must have a formal diagnosis or self-identified diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder
3. Participants can be of any age, gender, or year of study
4. All participants must be able to speak, read, and write basic English
Exclusion criteria:
Non-eligibility:
1. Anyone who is not enrolled with the University of Calgary
2. Participants are not eligible if they do not have a formal or self-identified diagnosis of autism
3. Anyone who cannot do either of the following: speak, read, or write basic English
Participate
Fill out the following form if you want to participate in this research
Collection of personal information
Your personal information is collected under
the authority of section 33(c) of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. If
you have any questions about the collection or use of this information, please visit our
Access to Information page.
Additional information
Contact information
If interested, please email Nicole at the Enhance Lab at enhancelab@ucalgary.ca or phone at 403-220-5457.
Principal investigator:
Carly McMorris
Clinical trial:
No
REB-ID:
REB20-0018