The NSF has made clear its view that mentoring in STEM is crucial to developing national intellectual capital. By improving retention of students in the discipline, the enhancement of the student experiences in research, and the professional challenges and satisfaction brought to mentors, the mentoring experience is beneficial to students, faculty, the program in which mentoring occurs and the greater STEM community.
There is much written about why we mentor. The motivation to mentor will differ from person to person, and role to role, but it is likely comprised of a combination of practical, professional, and personal imperatives, including:
Mentoring can be demanding and requires a responsible approach, but at the same time mentoring can provide an enjoyable means for acting in accordance with one's personal values.
"I enjoy seeing what students can accomplish and helping to push them beyond what they think they are capable of. By guiding engineers who are just entering the field, I also feel I am giving something back to a profession and discipline I care about. On the other hand, mentoring takes time - there were some summers when I knew that I did not have the time or energy to effectively mentor, so did not take any interns."- Dr. J. Adin Mann, M.E., faculty mentor, Iowa State University
Among a number of compelling reasons to mentor, Richard Myer of UC Davis highlights the learning experience of mentoring. In his article, "Why You Need To Mentor, No Matter What Your Level" he cites mentoring as a unique means to advance the knowledge and capabilities of the mentor through the act of teaching and guiding others.
The National Academy of Science publication, Advisor,Teacher, Role Model, Friend: On Being a Mentor to Students in Science and Engineering, provides additional information on the benefits of mentoring.
A well-considered, well-rounded, comprehensive plan for broadening participation directly addresses at least the following five areas of focus (for example, in the Diversity Section of a proposal) and also presents a number of concrete actions, activities and practices that, implemented, will achieve the goals of each area.
Areas of focus (expanded below with subsections and examples of concrete activities):
In addition to these areas, provide introductory context describing your awareness of diversity issues and your vision for creating change in this area. If you and your partners have an excellent record for diversity or strong areas – highlight them.
Select students who can bring something unique to your research group.
In his book, The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies (2007), Dr. Scott Page has demonstrated that teams with members holding a diversity of perspectives outperform those teams comprised of like-minded individuals. At the core of these findings is the observation that people with diverse backgrounds look at the same set of information differently, whereas people with the same background will look at the same set of information in roughly the same way. From a design engineering perspective, broadening viewpoints broadens the design space.
One of the sources of diversity within research teams is ethnic/cultural diversity, which can give people different perspectives.
"One of the best pieces of advice that I was given when starting as a faculty member was 'get graduate students who can do what you can’t do otherwise it is easiest to just do the work yourself.' Applying this to research teams, I have typically selected students with different educational backgrounds, but backgrounds related to the work. For example, a student from an HBCU (that typically does not include a large engineering college) will have a stronger background in mathematics, physics, or chemistry than many students from a large predominantly white mid-western university with a well-known engineering college. Teaming the student with stronger physics background and a student with strong practical engineering skills will likely produce better work than two with the same skill set."- Dr. J. Adin Mann, M.E., faculty mentor, Iowa State University
The Women in Science & Engineering Leadership Institute at University of Wisconsin-Madison has also published an excellent primer on the topic: The benefits and Challenges of Diversity in Academic Settings.
If mentoring is a significant aspect of your program, it is worth considering the creation of a position dedicated to mentoring development, maintenance and assessment tasks. The Graduate College at Western Michigan University established a Mentor Coordinator position as part of its effort toward fulfilling AGEP’s objectives. Specific duties and responsibilities of the position include:
The link for additional information on this program:
www.michagep.org/promising-practices/mentor-coordinator
These are just a few of the most successful programs we have found that integrate mentoring and diversity into their program designs. Many of the important elements of these programs have also been documented and are available to learn from or borrow as is appropriate for your experience.
Meyerhoff Scholars Program at the University of Maryland at Baltimore Country
MIMSUP: Multicultural Initiative in Marine Sciences,
SOARS: Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science.
How to Mentor Graduate Students: A Guide for Faculty produced at the University of Michigan, covers many issues related to mentoring grad student mentors, including a section (chapter 8) on mentoring underrepresented minorities. . Similarly, the Faculty Handbook: Mentoring Undergraduates in Research and Scholarship has been developed and is offered by the University of Alaska, Anchorage.
More Graduate Education at Mountain States Alliance conducted a faculty doctoral mentoring institute and captured many short video segments addressing common questions about mentoring and diversity.
This practical mentoring guide to some of the fundamental skills of mentoring was developed by Mentoring Physical Oceanography Women to Increase Retention (MPOWIR).
* Additional content under development
Designate a diversity point person, offer training, improve access to support materials, and follow up on an individual basis. All of the above keep broadening participation in the spotlight. Here are some tactics for implementing this inward focus.
Offer and implement training/orientation.
For example:
Improve access to materials and resources that can help faculty succeed in their efforts to address barriers to participation and increase diversity.
Materials and resources that can be helpful:
Some methods of providing them:
Follow up with project faculty, partners and leaders on a low-key, individual basis during calls, small meetings, or networking at conferences and events.
Some faculty and grad student mentors have never been asked to spend time or effort developing themselves as mentors, and may benefit from some guidance. The Wisconsin Center for Education Research has developed a set of curricula and website, Research Mentor Training, designed to facilitate a collaborative approach to developing faculty and grad student mentors. Another useful resource is offered by ENGAGE (Engaging Students in Engineering) on “Faculty-Student Interaction: Faculty Focus” which provides a simple set of strategies to improve programs. And Entering Mentoring is a commonly used guide to training mentors, which also asks the mentor to consider one's own orientation toward underrepresentation.
"The precise nature of the diversity challenges varies by program, as does the nature of the best solutions. For that reason, the Graduate School sought to identify aculty allies within the programs. Our hope was that in this way we could support and encourage 'local' efforts to recruit and retain diverse students" (University of Michigan staff, 2011).
They asked their Faculty Allies to perform a new role, including:
Steps to consider when enhancing your outward focus:
Set specific goals. I.e. “Recruit [x number] of underrepresented students per program year . . . increasing the participation of underrepresented students by [x%] in three years.”
Use IBP’s web resources and widespread recruitment activities to support your efforts. For example:
Focus on making your website and admissions and enrollment processes friendly, clear and multi-cultural. For example:
Focus on fostering partnerships – real partnerships with specific individuals:
Focus on travel and conference participation:
Request a targeted student mailing list from IBP’S National Student Directory of 40,000+ students, most of whom are underrepresented minority students.
Implement program structures and activities that build program community, help students connect with support systems, and provide checkpoints and response on student progress throughout the program.
IBP offers several tools to assist directors, including a guide to recruitment strategies , a template for drafting a recruitment plan as well as one for assisting with a retention plan . Each of these can be easily adapted to individual programs or used to enhance approaches, especially in trying to make the most of conference participation with an eye to recruitment. Additionally, IBP's guide for writing diversity plans into proposals can be found here. These resources and others can be found on the Pathways to Science Faculty link in the Resource Toolbox.