Part two of our series on student research experiences focuses on the mentors. If you have not read our first article make sure to check it out to see student testimonials on how participating in a research mentoring program affected their lives.
This year, as part of the CUNY College Now STEM Research Academy, we had 154 students from 50 high schools across New York City participate in a science-focused pre-college course. Of that initial cohort, 78 students opted to engage in research with faculty over the summer. Over 30 research faculty, across nine City University of New York (CUNY) campuses, mentored Academy students this year. This article is a result of our experiences and as well as our research mentors.
What is mentoring?
When Odysseus from Homer’s classic the Odyssey left for the Trojan War he placed his son, Telemachus, under the supervision of his friend Mentor. Mentor served as a teacher, trusted guide, and wise counselor to Telemachus. According to the American Psychological Association, mentoring generally provides two primary functions.
Career-related function: Establishes the mentor as a coach who provides advice to enhance the mentee’s professional performance and development.
Psychosocial function: Establishes the mentor as a role model and support system for the mentee.
Overall, the mentoring process is best understood as a holistic approach in which there is an interpersonal relationship, personal and professional growth, intellectual growth and development, and skills development. It is important to note that mentoring relationships can be either formal/structured, as is the case with our programs, or informal/unstructured.
Benefits of mentoring younger students
Mentoring high school students have many benefits. Although far from an exhaustive list, we have highlighted several benefits below.
Increased exposure to your field:
Exposure to a field through the eyes of a trusted mentor provides valuable perspective for a student when exploring potential academic/career paths. Students are often at the stage where they are aggregating and building a solid foundation of information about academic/career paths from various secondary sources (e.g. textbooks, articles, media) versus experienced-based sources. While opportunities like internships and externships bridge the gap between on the ground learning and in the classroom learning, having a mentor to guide, support, and facilitate navigation of a career is extremely advantageous. Even if a student decides not to pursue a career in research or in your respective discipline, they will have gained a better understanding of the field. They may become the policymakers, entrepreneurs, or business people who leverage research and become science advocates due to their earlier research experience.
“This [mentoring] was an opportunity to excite students about research, especially about I-O psychology.”
Joshua Nagel
1st time STEM Research Academy Mentor
PhD student, Industrial-Organizational Psychology
Baruch College & CUNY Graduate Center
Personal and professional growth:
Mentoring is a two-way learning experience. As highlighted by Lescak et al., mentoring allows researchers “to improve their communication of the complexities of everyday science to a new audience, and learn how to develop tangible project goals that can be tackled within a finite period—all of which are excellent professional development opportunities”. Science communication is a growing and expanding field and rightfully so! Why should exciting and applicable findings be relegated to the pages of scientific journals? Researchers are collectors of knowledge both self-generated and aggregated from other sources. A mentor’s communication with their mentees forces them to not only aggregate information to share with them but to also repackage in a way that is suitable for that audience. Learning, honing, and practicing this mode of communication with mentees is invaluable to any mentor who is an expert in their field. Additionally, students can bring a fresh perspective to old questions, which can shine a light on ideas and paths of inquiry that haven’t been explored before.
“They [students] are shocked to realize that I use mentoring an opportunity to learn more about something I may not be an expert on.”
Jeremy Seto, PhD
3rd year STEM Research Academy Mentor
Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences
New York City College of Technology
A sense of purpose and personal satisfaction:
In providing mentorship, you can develop a sense of purpose (making valuable contributions to others – individuals or organizations) and the satisfaction that you have played an important role in someone’s personal and professional development. In the short-term, a supportive mentor can change a students’ outlook or perception of a field, build interest, or facilitate engagement. In the long term, your efforts can potentially shift the course of a student’s life. Related to our previous point on your professional growth, recent research has demonstrated that those who match passion with a clear sense of purpose on the job perform much better than those who do not (Hansen, 2018).
“It was very rewarding. One of my students went from relatively uninterested to very engaged and committed.”
Sarah Bengston, PhD
1st time STEM Research Academy Mentor
Assistant Professor, Biology
Baruch College & CUNY Graduate Center
“It is exciting changing students’ lives by showing them the beauty of science and instilling critical thinking and perspective.”
Paris Svoronos, PhD
5th year STEM Research Academy Mentor
Professor, Chemistry
Queensborough Community College
Promoting your institution:
Your discipline may be overlooked by potential undergraduate applicants because your institution is well known for other majors. By serving as a mentor, you can provide firsthand insight as to why your institution is a quality destination for your subject matter (e.g. smaller program with more individualized attention). You will also have the opportunity to expose students to the available resources at your institution, which can make your institution much more attractive.
“I decided to mentor high school students to increase access to STEM opportunities and possibly recruit them to Baruch College.”
Rebecca Spokony, PhD
3rd year STEM Research Academy Mentor
Associate Professor, Biology
Baruch College & CUNY Graduate Center
Are you ready to be a mentor?
Like many things in life, you should not jump into a new endeavor without first assessing yourself and the opportunity. Complete the following questions, from CareerConnect’s Mentoring Workbook, to determine whether you are ready to become a mentor.
| Yes | No | |
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1. Are you willing to invest time and energy in a mentoring relationship? |
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| 2. Do you feel mentoring is a valuable form of development? | ||
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3. Are you open to learning from a mentee? |
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4. Are you open to sharing your expertise and experiences with a mentee? |
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| 5. Are you willing to help a mentee develop and achieve learning objectives? | ||
| 6. Are you willing to discuss mistakes and failures as well as successes? | ||
| 7. Are you a good listener? | ||
| 8. Are you willing to give candid feedback – positive and negative? | ||
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9. Do you encourage new skills and behaviors? |
If you answered ‘Yes’ to the questions above, you are ready to become a mentor!
If you answered ‘No’ to questions 1, 2, or 3, you might want to support students in other ways. Mentoring may be more appropriate for you when your schedule is more flexible.
If you answered ‘No’ to questions 4-9, you might find some aspects of mentoring very challenging. If you decide to proceed with mentoring, you will want to remain aware of these items and work closely with your mentee to ensure they do not get in the way of a successful experience.
Resources and tips for mentors
According to Handelsman & colleagues, effective mentoring cannot be taught but it can be learned. As such, most individuals learn to become an effective mentor by trial and error. If you have tried mentoring before and gave up because “it didn’t work out” give it another shot. If you are thinking of becoming a mentor for the first time, be patient and learn as you go. Learning how your content expertise and professional experience may be impactful or helpful to a mentee may change from mentee to mentee. It’s acceptable and expected for the needs of your mentees to be met differently, so cultivating flexibility in your mentor/mentee relationships is important. It does not change the fact that a mentor undoubtedly has something valuable to offer.
“It was difficult to tell exactly where their [mentees] knowledge of certain topics started and ended. I think they were worried they knew too little and often oversold their confidence. I had to really work hard to find when we were moving into unfamiliar territory.”
Sarah Bengston, PhD
1st time STEM Research Academy Mentor
Assistant Professor, Biology
Baruch College & CUNY Graduate Center
Mentoring does not come without its challenges, especially when working with younger students, but it can still be extremely enriching for the mentor. Below are some “Simple Rules” on how to be an effective research mentor to high school students (Lescak et al, 2019):
- Check with your institution’s environmental health and safety/risk management offices to confirm the rules and regulations for working with minors.
- Make sure that you and your PI agree on reasonable, time-bound expectations and goals for the student’s mentoring experience.
- Be realistic and transparent about your expectations for the student and provide positive feedback.
- Set goals early and revisit them often.
- Design a deliverable for the end of the experience.
- Structure the student’s time when they are in the lab.
- Help the student see both the big picture and how each experiment meshes with those goals.
- Guide the student toward becoming independent in their work and taking ownership of their project.
- Show the student you are human and relatable.
- Establish a long-term mentoring relationship.
- Cultivate a culture of communication whether by email, in-person or virtually.
- Strive to mentor through a culturally competent lens, especially in diverse urban settings.
Additionally, when we surveyed students across the Academies (n= 35) they identified (on a 1-5 scale, where 5 indicates high importance and 1 indicates low importance), the following mentor characteristics as most to least important (thanks Science Buddies for the idea!).
| Mentor Characteristics | Importance Averages |
| Willing to spend time explaining difficult concepts, usage of equipment, etc. | 4.49 |
| Has appropriate expectations for the student’s time commitment to the project | 4.47 |
| Has mentored high school students before | 4.20 |
| Personality compatible with the students, easy to work with, etc. | 4.17 |
| If lacking experience in the mentoring of high school students, has mentored undergraduate college students (i.e., has some experience with students who are not graduate students) |
4.15 |
| Familiar with the rules and paperwork for the advanced science competitions | 4.09 |
| Readily available in the lab | 3.80 |
| Gives the student freedom to do a project in his or her lab that is not directly related to the mentor’s own research | 3.79 |
| Readily available outside the lab (after hours) | 3.62 |
| Similar likes and dislikes to student’s | 3.59 |
Although the following resources are geared towards researchers interested in mentoring junior faculty, post-doctoral fellows, and/or graduate students, they provide additional guidance on how to become an effective research mentor.
- Optimizing the Practice of Mentoring: An Online Curriculum for the Professional Development of Research Mentors (free online training)
- Entering Mentoring: A Seminar to Train a New Generation of Scientists (guide)
- Mentor Curricula and Training: Entering Mentoring (discipline-specific curricula)
- Becoming a great mentor (article)
Navigating the early stages of a potential career path can be overwhelming, confusing, and deflating as well as exciting and motivating. Some students can manage the challenges and changes autonomously, while others require and benefit from more support and guidance on their journey. Being a mentor, you do not steer the ship but serve as the first mate.
References:
American Psychological Association (2006). Introduction to Mentoring: A Guide for Mentors and Mentees.
Handelsman, J., Pfund, C., Miller Lauffer, S., & Pribbenow, C.M. (2005). Entering mentoring: A seminar to train a new generation of scientists. Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.
Hansen, M. (2018). Great at Work: How Top Performers Do Less, Work Better, and Achieve More. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.
Lescak, E.A., O’Neill, K.M., Collu, G.M., & Das, S. (2019). Ten simple rules for providing a meaningful research experience to high school students. PLoS Comput Biol 15(4): e1006920
Great article for a great program. So many young people never get the chance to explore the sciences. This program is a winner for all.