Orientation & Onboarding

As a new faculty member, you'll be provided with ongoing resources and support to help you navigate your teaching, scholarship, and professional development at Saint Mary's College. During your first year, we are excited to engage with our newest Gael Faculty through:

Orientation 

On August 17th and 18th, 2023 we will hold a 2-day new faculty orientation created so that you can build community and get to know about life on campus. 

Retreats

The New Faculty Retreat will take place in November to help faculty gain skills and reflect on their teaching practice and work-life balance.

In January, we will also host a Faculty Writing Retreat. Both retreats are held in the beautiful Christian Brother Retreat and Conference Center / Mont La Salle in Napa, California. 

Mentorship Program

Rather than traditional one-on-one mentoring dyads, faculty development has organized mentor-mentee ‘pods.’ As a non-hierarchical model, assigned faculty mentors share their insights and experiences in dialogue spaces. Likewise, new faculty can offer their own “mentorship” to established faculty sharing their own experiences, insights, and new approaches to teaching, scholarship, and service at SMC. The goal is to further advance a culture of faculty support, relationship building; and ongoing dialogue across disciplinary perspectives and social positionalities