Recognize the basics of good mentoring
You know you want good mentoring, but how do you know when you have found it? There are several ways to recognize good mentoring, and certain aspects will be to your advantage no matter what your educational and career aspirations. For example, faculty members who have received awards for outstanding mentoring are excellent models. Advanced graduate students and alumni also are great sources of insight into what will help you function optimally as a learner and professional. In all, a good mentor can be defined as a person who:
Students say. . .
"The message my mentor sent was that I had value enough for her to spend time with me."
"The most important things my mentor did were spending time talking with me and taking an interest in things interesting to me."
"It has been extremely helpful to me to have a mentor who recognized that academic procedures and protocol — everything from how to select classes to how to assemble a panel for a conference — are not familiar territory for a lot of people."
"My mentor has been willing to answer the most basic questions without making me feel foolish for asking them."
"I wrote several drafts before he felt I had begun to make a cogent argument, and as painful as that was, I would not have written the dissertation that I did without receiving strong, if just, criticism, but in a compassionate way."
"Honest advice, given as gently as possible, is something all of us graduate students need."
"Mentorship is far more than a one-time conversation about your career plans or a visit to a professor's home. It is the mentor's continuous engagement in a student's professional growth and the ongoing support and encouragement of a student's academic endeavors."
"My professors encouraged me both to publish my work and to participate in conferences. Without their encouragement, I might not have made the effort to accomplish these things."
"My co-chair referred me to a faculty member doing related research at a time when my research was floundering and I really needed additional support. I could not have completed my dissertation were it not for this recommendation."
"My advisors really made a team of their graduate students, having regular meetings and informal parties and get-togethers, working on projects together, and forming interest groups. That comradeship was essential to my academic growth and my sense of having a community."
"My mentor allowed my tasks to grow along with me, offering appropriate opportunities and challenges at each stage of my education."
"I knew that I was not just an ordinary student when she invited me to co-teach with her. We worked together as colleagues, not as teacher and student."
"She treated me and her other students with respect — respect for our opinions, our independence, and our visions of what we wanted to get from graduate school."
"It sounds silly but the best thing my mentor did for me was to actually sit down and listen to what I had to say. When graduate students are allowed to feel that what they have to say is actually worthwhile, it makes interactions more rewarding."
"Having someone supportive when things go wrong is the difference, in my mind, between an adequate mentor and a great one."
"A few of my professors were always willing and eager to talk with me about my career interests, professional pursuits, and issues such as juggling career and family. This may not sound like much, but it truly makes a difference."
Engages students in ongoing conversations
- Invites students to talk often, and welcomes them to discussions during office hours, in the lab, department lounges, or hallways.
- Gets in touch with students at least once a quarter and is sensitive to whether remoteness is a cultural way of showing respect or due to social isolation.
- Invites students, if he or she can, to coffee or outings away from the office so informal and rich discussions can occur without office distractions.
Demystifies graduate school for students
- Helps students interpret program guidelines and graduate school policies and procedures.
- Clarifies unwritten or vague aspects of program expectations for coursework, exams, research, and teaching.
- Helps students understand the finer points of forming a committee and how to approach a thesis or dissertation.
- Helps students understand the criteria used to judge the quality of their work at different stages of graduate study.
- Alerts students to possible pitfalls, especially those that may affect their funding status.
Provides constructive and supportive feedback
- Provides students with frank, helpful, and timely feedback on their work.
- Tempers criticism with praise when it is deserved, and holds students to high standards to help them improve.
- Does not assume a lack of commitment if a student falls behind in work, but instead tries to assess, with the student, what is going on and offers ways to help.
- Knows the benefits of early intervention and addresses quickly any question about a student's ability to complete his or her degree.
Provides encouragement
- Encourages students to come forward with their ideas at all stages of development.
- Motivates students to try new techniques and expand their skills.
- Reminds students that mistakes lead to better learning.
- Shares less-than-successful professional experiences and the lessons learned from them.
- Knows that many students experience anxiety about their place in graduate school (e.g., the imposter syndrome), and helps them understand that even seasoned professionals experience this kind of anxiety.
- Teaches students how to break down potentially overwhelming projects into smaller, more manageable tasks.
Fosters networks and multiple mentors
- Helps students locate assistance from multiple sources of expertise, and sees UNL faculty, graduate students, alumni, department staff, retired faculty, and faculty from other universities as rich resources.
- Introduces students to faculty and other graduate students in the department and at conferences who have complementary interests.
- Helps students connect their work with that of experts in the community (e.g., graduate alumni) who can provide helpful career perspectives.
- Builds a community of scholars by coordinating informal discussion and interest groups or occasional social events among students who share interests.
Looks out for students' interests
- Conveys through a variety of means that he or she wants students to succeed.
- Creates opportunities for students to demonstrate their competencies by encouraging them to present at meetings, conferences, and in university forums.
- Nominates students for high-visibility fellowships, projects, teaching, and internship opportunities.
- Promotes students' research and teaching projects inside and outside the department.
- Is a clear advocate for all graduate students.
Treats students with respect
- Minimizes interruptions and distractions during meetings with students, or, on occasion, meets away from the lab or office to offer more personalized time.
- Tells students what he or she learns from them, to help them see themselves as potential colleagues.
- Acknowledges the prior skills and personal and professional experiences students bring to graduate school.
Provides a personal touch
- Is open, approachable, and demonstrates caring, even when students need to discuss nonacademic issues.
- Does not assume that all students experience the challenges of graduate school in the same way, and assists them in finding creative solutions to the particular issues and circumstances they encounter.
- Keeps abreast of the mentoring and professional development resources at the Office of Graduate Studies and elsewhere designed to help students succeed.
