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Mentorship:

How to Survive and Thrive

Center for Science and Engineering Partnerships

October 2025

Slides by Slidesgo

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On the agenda

Who am I? What about mentorship?

Research Goals & Timeline

Mentor-Mentee Compact

Specific Tools:

Intern Handbook

Mentor Guide

Extra Tools:

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Who am I? Why do I care?

  • Annette Hilton
  • 5th Year PhD Bren School Environmental Science & Management
  • Center for Science and Engineering Partnerships (CSEP) Mentor Fellow

Mentorship is amazing

EUREKA! 2022

SIMS 2022

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Who am I? Why do I care?

I've mentored a lot of students…

  • 4 undergraduates 8-week internship (EUREKA)
  • 8 undergraduates 3-week boot camp (SIMS)
  • 2 undergraduates on long-term project
  • 1 undergraduate in field work
  • 3 masters students on long-term project�
  • And 2 more undergraduates this summer!

EUREKA! 2023

SIMS 2022

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Mentorship makes a difference…

For better or worse!

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Effective mentorship

Better for Mentee

Self-satisfaction, builds self-esteem, community

Better for Project

Be efficient with clear guidelines and communication

Better for You (Mentor)

Build skills, feel confident, contribute to someone's life! (also project managing)

Better for PI (your boss)

Accomplish goals, trusts you more and gives resources

Everyone is Happy

Yay!

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Mentorship is a skill: Build it!

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Align expectations & communicate

01

Research Plan

Define goals & how they will be achieved

Inclusive Mentorship Practices

03

Mentor-Mentee Compact

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Creating a Research Plan

01

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Return to undergraduate…

No syllabus

No schedule of exams

No course description

No powerpoint

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Return to undergraduate…

Research

?

?

?

?

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All research needs a plan

  1. Goals�
  2. Steps to achieve those goals �
  3. Timeline

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Step 1. Identify your project goals

Overarching Goal

Specific Goal

01

Goals for academic quarter (10-weeks) that contribute to your overarching goal

Specific Goal

02

Specific Goal

03

Goal for entire research project, entire year, big-picture goal

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Note: Specific goals should be specific

Vague Goal:

Make progress on my research

Concrete Goal (s):

  1. Compile each dataset I need for my hypotheses
  2. Plan first two experiments (when & their methods)
  3. Draft a reproducible workflow to analyze the data (in RStudio)

Terrifying

Less terrifying

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Step 2. Outline steps of your specific goals

Specific Goal

Step

01

Step

02

Step

03

Repeat for each specific goal you have

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How do I make steps?

What will show me that goal has been achieved?

Product

Steps

What activities do we need to complete to make this possible?

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What is a product?

Question:

What will show me that goal has been achieved?

Product

  • Report
    • Literature review
    • Methods plan
    • Anticipated results
  • Poster or presentation
    • Summary of work
  • Demonstration of skills
    • What skills, how?
    • Unsupervised work
    • Experiments completed

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What do steps look like?

Steps

Question:

What activities do we need to complete to make this possible?

  • Literature review
    • Brief intro to field, how to search google scholar, how to read an academic article
  • Methods plan
    • Read papers on methods, look at examples, make multiple drafts and get edits
  • Unsupervised work
    • Lab safety training, demonstrations of experiment, semi-supervised work

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Step 3. Introduce your project steps to your calendar

Month

Week

Project Steps & Goals

June

Week 1

Teach how to read academic article, train lab safety

June

Week 2

Assign 2-3 articles on methods, ask for list of questions, review with mentee

June

Week 3

Mentee drafts methods plan, practice first experiment together

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Helpful questions to ask yourself

  • What is the situation (internship, research assistant)?
  • Does this fit into larger goals you have (dissertation, your lab group)?
  • What are your goals?
  • Are those goals for your degree level (remember, undergraduate)?

  • How long will you work with the student?
  • How much time does the student have per week?
  • What does the student need to know, what skills do they need to gain to be successful?
  • How can the student benefit beyond research?

Big picture…

More details…

Bonus: Check out teaching pedagogy Backward Design

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Tool:

Project Goals & Timeline Sheet

Step 1. Identify your project goals

  • Overarching goal
  • Specific goals �

Step 2. Outline the steps of your specific goal(s)�

Step 3. Introduce your project steps to your calendar

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Let's take a look…

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Aligning Goals & Expectations

02

(Mentor-Mentee Compact)

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Mentorship milestones (ideal world)

Mentor Selection Phase

01

Understanding your motivation to mentor and finding the right mentee

Setting expectations and goals, establishing roles, developing timelines

Alignment Phase

02

Cultivating areas for growth and communicating changing needs

Cultivation Phase

03

Setting conditions for end of mentor/mentee relationship

Closure Phase

04

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Mentorship milestones (real life)

How much prior knowledge do they have? Are they careful?

Most time consuming phase

Maybe you get to choose your mentee, maybe you just get handed one

Can be ambiguous (mentee might disappear), can be very clear (end of the program)

Mentor Selection Phase (maybe)

Getting to Know Your Mentee Phase

Closure Phase

Alignment Phase

Training Phase

Mentee is trained, competent, and is producing data

Productive Phase

Setting expectations and goals, establishing roles, developing timelines

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Mentorship milestones (real life)

How much prior knowledge do they have? Are they careful?

Most time consuming phase

Maybe you get to choose your mentee, maybe you just get handed one

Can be ambiguous (mentee might disappear), can be very clear (end of the program)

Mentee is trained, competent, and is producing data

Mentor Selection Phase (maybe)

Getting to Know Your Mentee Phase

Closure Phase

Alignment Phase

Training Phase

Productive Phase

Setting expectations and goals, establishing roles, developing timelines

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Self reflection & communication

Compact

Mentor Expectations

Why do you want to mentor an undergraduate researcher?

How much time do you have to mentor?

What expectations do you have of your mentee?

Communication

Mentee Expectations

Why do I want to work with a graduate student/postdoc?

What experience do I want to gain?

How am I going to balance classes, sports, and research?

Communication

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Tool:

Mentor-Mentee Compact

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What does this look like?

Mentee given questions to draft answers to and think about prior to meeting

Meet and create compact together

Mentor thinks on these questions and their own goals

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01

02

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What are the benefits?

Would you like a mentor-mentee compact with your advisor?

  • Clear expectations
  • How to communicate
  • Time they have available for you
  • Accountability
    • Mentor side
    • Student side

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Let's take a look…

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Coffee! And work break!

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Questions and thoughts?

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Bonus Tools:

Example Intern Handbook

Mentor Guide

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Mentor Guide

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Resources to Succeed

Research Plan

Mentor-

Mentee Compact

Hand-

books

Research Plan

Define goals & how they will be achieved

Mentor-Mentee Compact

Align expectations & communicate

Handbooks

Guide for interns

Guide for mentors

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Find our resources

Resources on website here!

mentoring.csep.ucsb.edu

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Summer Training Series

Fall Workshops

More workshops coming…

Questions?

Stay in touch!

Designing an Undergraduate Research Project

Early June

Aligning Expectations with your Mentee

Late June

Developing Inclusive Mentoring Practices

July

Annette Hilton

csep-mentorship@ucsb.edu

To be announced!

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