Aligning Expectations with Your Mentee
Center for Science and Engineering Partnerships
June 11th, 2024
Slides by Slidesgo
Mentorship is a skill: Build it!
Workshop #2
Mentor-Mentee Compact
Workshop #1
Creating a Research Plan
Define goals & how they will be achieved
Inclusive Mentorship Practices
Workshop #3
Aligning Expectations
CSEP Summer Series!
Today's Objectives
*Note: this workshop is targeted for typical summer internship (8-10 weeks)
Mentorship makes a difference…
For better or worse!
“...higher levels of mentorship and support appear to shape students’ goals and expectations regarding their education”
“Students identify a good mentor as one who has ‘time for the mentee’ and listens to the students, while less effective mentors are not readily available to spend time with the students, which forces the students to work independently….”
“Many students said that their future research/graduate school plans were affected by their REU mentor relationship, and that…they now recognize the mentor as a crucial aspect of a research project.”
Eagan et al. Am. Educ. Res. J., 50, 2013
Houser et al., J. Geosci. Educ., 61, 2013
Houser et al., J. Geosci. Educ., 61, 2013
Eagan et al. Am. Educ. Res. J., 50, 2013
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!
Aligning Goals & Expectations
Workshop #2
(Mentor-Mentee Compact)
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
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
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
Return to Undergraduate…
Nathan W Pyle
Publish in Nature
Get some lab experience
Wants to go to grad school and med school
Contribute to groundbreaking scientific discoveries
Do everything perfectly the first time and never make any mistakes
Don’t embarrass myself
Network
IDK
Present at conferences
Ask smart sounding questions
Don’t break anything
Mentor Expectations
Why do you want to mentor an undergraduate researcher?
What expectations do you have your undergrad intern?
Love mentoring? Professional development? An extra set of hands? Voluntold?
Does your answer depend on YOUR research level or YOUR research ambitions?
Autocratic
Democratic
Laissez-faire
Three Mentoring Styles
Mentor dictates tasks for the mentees
Consults with the mentee and listens to their suggestions
Mentor provides little direction to mentee and expects them to identify, develop, and execute research independently
Role of the Faculty Mentor in an Undergraduate Research Experience.
Houser, Lemmons, & Cahill (2013)
As mentors we want to…
Mentor-Mentee Compact
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
Tool:
Mentor-Mentee Compact
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
01
01
02
Let's take a look…
Questions so far?
Panel Discussion
Panelists
Anna Boser (she/her)
4th year PhD
Bren School Environmental Science & Management
Guillermo Terrén-Serrano
(he/him)
Postdoctoral fellow
Environmental Studies Program & Environmental Markets Lab (emLab)
Alison Li
(she/her)
3rd year PhD
Psychological & Brain Sciences
Bonus Tools:
Project Goals & Timeline
Example Intern Handbook
Mentor Guide
Project Goals & Timeline
Mentor Guide
Mentorship Resources
Website:
mentoring.csep.ucsb.edu
Contact:
csep-mentorship@ucsb.edu
One more workshop!
Register on Shoreline
July 16th
Food provided,
gift card raffles!
Feedback Form & Gift Card Raffle!