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The Advancing Inclusive Mentoring (AIM) Program, known on campus as the Beach Mentor Program, was developed by BUILD Research Enrichment Core Co-director, Dr. Kelly Young, based on the successful BUILD Mentoring Community (BMC) that she developed during BUILD Phase I. The AIM Program provides a variety of engaging faculty training resources to promote student success through positive and inclusive mentoring and share best mentoring practices. The AIM Program works towards that goal by providing a hybrid program: 35 videos across six learning modules are accompanied by six synchronous discussions to build a community of practice around mentoring. The videos feature faculty and staff members from around the ºÚÁÏÍø campus who share tips and ideas on best practices in mentoring, along with re-enactments (animation scenes) of student/professor scenarios that are based on real mentoring stories collected from the ºÚÁÏÍø campus community. The AIM modules are structured to meet key learning outcomes and include: Communicating with your Mentee; Inclusive Mentoring; Cultivating Mentee Growth & Development; Facilitating Mentee Health & Wellbeing; Mentee-Centered Mentoring; and a Mentoring Toolbox. The program is institutionalized and offered campus-wide every semester by the Faculty Center as the Beach Mentor Program. Faculty members   receive the Beach Mentor digital badge issued by the Faculty Center when they complete the training, a status that is recognized for specific internal grants, such as the Summer Student Research Assistantships awards provided by the Office of Research and Economic Development (ORED). At the end of BUILD award in Spring 2025, over 970 mentors completed the AIM/Beach Mentor Program, including over 350 ºÚÁÏÍø faculty mentors. The AIM Program has been adopted by 13 US and international institutions, including 9 CSUs. More information on the Faculty Center’s Beach Mentor program can be found here.

BUILD is proud to support the conceptualization, development, and partial funding for the initial implementation of the Faculty Equity Advocates program (FEA). The idea for this program was developed at a Diversity Retreat that was held in the Fall of 2018 with BUILD PI and CNSM Dean Laura Kingsford, Provost Brian Jersky, President Jane Conoley, and the President’s Inclusive Excellence Taskforce. The purpose of the FEA Program is to create a community of faculty members who work collaboratively with Deans, Associate Deans, Department Chairs and faculty members in their respective colleges to increase the diversity of the faculty; equity and inclusion as demonstrated in outreach and recruitment efforts related to faculty hiring; and retention of probationary faculty members, particularly those from under-represented groups.  In its early implementation in AY 2019-2020, nine FEAs were selected across seven ºÚÁÏÍø colleges with BUILD provided partial funding support for six FEAs in the four BUILD participating colleges: Engineering, Health and Human Services, Liberal Arts, and Natural Sciences and Mathematics. AY 2020-2021 marked the end of direct BUILD support for this initiative as the FEA Program was fully institutionalized. Together, the FEAs represent ºÚÁÏÍø’s institutional commitment for increasing diversity of our faculty. 

The Pre-Professor Program (PREPP) was conceptualized at the end of BUILD Phase Ito support advanced doctoral students and postdoctoral scholars at the University of California Irvine (UCI), our R1 partner institution, in transitioning to faculty positions by engaging them in a semester-long program at ºÚÁÏÍø. PREPP Fellows receive individual mentorship from an experienced PREPP Mentor who engages them during weekly meetings to explore topics and activities related to teaching, service, and research at comprehensive and ethnically diverse institutions, as well as the process for applying for tenure track positions at such institutions. In 2021, the program partnered with the CSU Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Program (CDIP) at the CSU Chancellor’s Office to expand across the CSU system to become CSU PREPP with five pilot CSU campuses to serve as host campuses for the semester-long virtual PREPP experience. Plans are being developed to further expand the partnership with more CSU and UC campuses.   

Through partnership with the Office of Undergraduate Research Services (OURS), OURS Research Certificate was developed as a new option in the OURS Connects program to offer a semi-structured experience that was modelled after the curriculum of the ºÚÁÏÍø BUILD Student Training Program. In addition to faculty-mentored research, the program utilizes online professional development modules developed based on the content of the BUILD Learning Community seminar classes. The program broadens undergraduate students' access to research training experience and is open to students from all disciplines and with career goals that may not be eligible for federally funded research training programs. More information on the OURS Research Certificate program can be found here.

Research-infused courses were developed in BUILD Phase I with the aim of introducing research methods and skills as well as enhancing students’ understanding of health disparities to a broader student population. Seven courses covering topics in scientific communication, health disparities, and research methods in biomedical and behavioral disciplines were developed. Two courses, Scientific Research Communication and Interdisciplinary Approaches to Health Disparities have been adopted by the College of Engineering (ENGR 361) and College of Liberal Arts (HDEV 303), respectively. During BUILD Phase II, the Research-Infused Course Redesign Award Program was created to provide faculty with assigned time to update and integrate research contents to courses in their academic programs.  Fourteen undergraduate courses across four BUILD-participating colleges were redesigned with this award program.