Dimensions

Dimensions’ mission is to address and generate awareness of issues that impact women from diverse backgrounds through a facilitated mentoring program in which women of color support each other, engage in dialogue about pertinent issues, and acquire leadership and professional development skills. Dimensions seeks to create a place where women of color feel comfortable and included, not only at Syracuse University, but also within the larger Syracuse community. Members will have opportunities to enlarge their awareness on global issues that impact women from diverse cultural backgrounds and to engage in projects that influence the well-being of these communities of women.

• Develop a one-to-one mentoring experience.
• Gain leadership, time management and communication skills.
• Develop lifelong relationships with peers.
• Create sustaining and helpful relationships.
• Become a part of a sisterhood.

Dimensions meets weekly on Fridays from 3-5 p.m. Our weekly sessions in the fall are focused on the transition to college life, navigating culture shock, building community and goal setting. In the spring, all sessions are led by our Dimensions Mentors and range from topics like mental health, representation in media, colorism, holistic wellness and more.

Mentee Application Process

Dimensions is a sisterhood where people can come together to create an environment where women of color can support each other, engage in dialogue on issues pertinent to women of color, and acquire leadership and professional development skills. If you are a first-year or transfer woman of color on campus and are looking to gain a mentor, please apply to become a 2025-26 mentee! Applications are due Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, at noon. If you have any questions, please call 315.443.0228 or email BIPOCSS@syr.edu.

Mentor Application Process

Mentors are selected through an application process held in the spring semester. Recruitment spans through January and February, and applications must be submitted before spring break. Once completed applications are submitted, applicants go through interviews followed by decision letters.

Once accepted as a Dimensions mentor, a mandatory retreat is required as part of training. The training involves an in-depth analysis of mentors’ lifestyles, specifically via exercises that push mentors to critically reflect upon their lives, culture and understanding of people and themselves. Additionally, various training exercises and modules are used to gain a better understanding of what it means to be a mentor and how to specifically mentor a first-year student.

All interested applicants are encouraged to apply, including rising sophomores.

• Returning Mentor Applications for the 2025-26 academic year are due Friday, March 7, 2025.
• New Mentor Applications for the 2025-26 academic year are due Monday, April 14, 2025.

The Dimensions Mentoring Program was created in 2002 in the Office of Multicultural Affairs. During that time, the climate of the University and the student leaders were primarily male. As many of the young women on campus wanted to have their voices heard, they needed a forum where that could be properly formed and established. Dimensions was created to help facilitate a space where self-identified women of color could transition through college with a support network. The program focuses on pairing first-year and transfer students with upperclass women with whom they form bonds, sisterhood, obtain academic and professional resources, and learn to address the issues that face their communities. Over the years, Dimensions has mentored over 600 first-year and transfer women of color, many of whom return to the program to become mentors.