Developing a Comprehensive

Graduate Student Mentoring Program

through a Collaborative Process

University of Miami Graduate School

Friday April 20, 2017

Guillermo Prado, Dean

Tatiana Perrino, Associate Dean

June Carrington, Post-doctoral Fellow

Krystal Bichay, PhD Student

Rhoda Moise, PhD Student

1. Background

2. Collaborative process in developing program

3. Program specifics

4. Feedback & considerations

Benefits of Mentoring

• More productivity in research and academia (Malmgren, Ottino, & Amaral, 2010; Steiner et al., 2002)

• Higher levels of career satisfaction (Beech et al., 2013)

• Improved recruitment and retention of underrepresented students (Hathaway et al., 2002)

• Organizational and other benefits

Background

Best practices in mentoring

• Peer reviewed literature (see references)

• Institution reports

• Berkeley: http://academic-senate.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/committees/gc/mentoring_gdelines-final_0.pdf

• Ohio State University: http://webby.gradsch.ohio-state.edu/DEPO/PDF/MentoringAdvisingGradStudents.pdf

• University of Michigan: http://www.rackham.umich.edu/downloads/publications/Fmentoring.pdf

• Others

Background

Lunsford, L.G., Baker, V.L. (2016). Great mentoring in graduate school: A quick start guide for

proteges. Council of Graduate Schools, Occasional Paper Series, Number 4.

Need for mentoring at UMiami

Graduate Student Association survey (Fall 2016)

•More than 1,000 students responded

•Asked about satisfaction with current mentoring

•70% “strongly agreed” or “somewhat agreed” that they were satisfied

Yet, variability in attention to mentoring across schools and departments

Background

Need for mentoring at UMiami (continued)

Anecdotal reports from some students:

•Isolation in graduate school or program

•Pressure to meet advisor’s expectations interferes with communication about:

• Challenges in graduate school- e.g., academic performance, lab/ work hours

• Requesting assistance and support

• Authorship and fair acknowledgment for work

• Career and job interests (especially outside academia)

•Desire to strengthen “sense of community”

•Consistent with concerns from other student reports (Nyquist & Woodford, 2000)

Importance of supporting under-represented students in their graduate work and subsequent careers

Background

Program Goals - started January 2017

• Strengthen support for graduate students- career and psychosocial development

• Build community among graduate students

• Promote engagement and retention of inclusive, diverse graduate student body

• Promote a “culture of mentorship” at UMiami

Pilot Program Development

Gathered input to guide the program

• McKnight Executive Board, graduate students

• School administrators, advisors, faculty members

• McKnight/ Florida Educational Fund CEO- Dr. Lawrence Morehouse

• National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN)

• Mentoring literature

• UMiami’s existing initiatives: e.g., SEEDs Program, Culture of Belonging

• Will continue to obtain input

Collaborative Process in Program Development

Key aspects

• Open, collaborative development process- continuous input, especially from students

• Individualized to meet mentee needs

• Mentor training, addressing mentor needs

• Starting early, at time of entry to graduate school

• Structural, institutional support from the Graduate School

Program Specifics

Key aspects (continued)

• Multiple mentors or “360-degree mentoring” (Collins, 2008)

• Internal mentor. Confirmed each student had advisor within department• Outside Mentor. Individually, connected each student with second

“outside” mentor. At UM, other universities, McKnight graduates in community, NRMN Virtual Network

• Peer Mentoring. Support existing McKnight meetings -within & across cohorts, within & across disciplines

• Formal and informal mentoring (Ragins et al., 1999)• Career and psychosocial development (e.g., self-efficacy)

Program Specifics

• McKnight Executive Board and Graduate School announced program

• McKnight Executive Board sent students survey on mentoring

• McKnight Executive Board’s engaging, brief video was circulated to students: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B47KI2DYLa6-YldxSG5XSmVyRU0/view

• Focus Group and individual emails with McKnight students to:

• Obtain ideas and feedback

• Mentor characteristics they were looking for

• Their needs (career search, dissertation, etc.)

• Informed students’ advisors about program, sought their input

• Reached out to mentors to request participation as “outside mentors”

• Connected students and outside mentors to each other

Program Specifics

Mentees

• Volunteers, most from the McKnight Fellows Program (n=12)

• Students from different years, departments

Mentors

• Volunteers (n=11)

• Selected most based upon reputation for good student relations, mentoring

• Announced pilot program at Graduate Faculty meetings to seek volunteers

Program Specifics

Program Specifics

Graduate School provides

• Workshops

• Example- National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN)

• Follow-up workshops

• Resources

• Information- What constitutes good mentoring? How to align expectations?

• Sample Mentor-Mentee Agreements

• Readings and documents on strengthening mentoring

• Connections

• NRMN Virtual Mentoring Network

• McKnight program

Mentoring Workshop:National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN)

Program Specifics

Graduate School continues to update and seek feedback

• Evaluations, check-ins for evolving needs

• Feedback from all participants and stakeholders

• Problem-solve, as needed

Potential Challenges

Engaging as many students as possible, especially those with greatest need

Taking the program to scale

• Time-intensive for administrators, mentors

• Resources needed

Sustainability and improvement across time

Variability in mentoring needs and existing programs across schools, departments

• Building on what already exists to strengthen and avoid redundancy

• Identifying common mentoring needs. Potential differences in mentoring needs and perspectives- e.g., School of Music, School of Medicine, etc..

• Building on existing university initiatives

Feedback & Considerations

• Experiences that can inform this pilot program?

• Potential pitfalls?

• Engaging and motivating students?

• Other comments and feedback are welcome

References

Beech, B.M., et al. (2013). Mentoring programs for underrepresented minority faculty in academic medical centers: A systematic review of the literature. Academic Medicine, 88, 1097-1099.

Collins, E. (2008). 360-degree mentoring. Harvard Management Update, March 2008.

Handelsman J, Pfund C, Lauffer S, Pribbenow C. (2005). Entering mentoring: A seminar to train a new generation of scientists. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press. Hathaway et al., 2002

Hathaway, R.S., Nagda, B., & Gregerman, S.R. (2002). The relationship of undergraduate research participation to graduate and professional education pursuit: An empirical study. Journal of College Student Development, 43, 1018.

Kreuter, M.W., Griffith, D.J., Thompson, V., Brownson, R.C., McClure, S., Sharff, D.P., Clark, E.M., & Haire- Joshu, D. (2011). Lessons learned from a decase of foused recruitment and training to develop minority public health professionals. American Journal of Public Health, 101 (S1), S188-95.

Liang, B., Spencer, R., West, J., & Rappaport, N. (2007). Expanding the reach of youth mentoring: Partnering with youth for personal growth and social change. Journal of Adolescence, 36, 257-67.

References

Lunsford, L.G., Baker, V.L. (2016). Great mentoring in graduate school: A quick start guide for proteges. Council of Graduate Schools, Occasional Paper Series, Number 4.

Malmgren, D. R., Ottino, J.M., & Amaral, L.A.N. (2010). The role of mentorship in protégé performance. Nature, 465, 622-6.

National Research Mentor Network. (n.d.) Retrieved from https://nrmnet.net.

Nyquist, J.D. & Woodford, B.J. (2000). Re-envisioning the PhD: What concerns foo we have? Pew Charitable Trust.

Phillips, S.L. & Dennison, S.T. (2015). Faculty Mentoring: a Practical Manual for Mentors, Mentees, Administrators, and Faculty Developers, Sterling VA: Stylus.

Ragins, B.R., & Cotton, J.L. (1999). Mentor functions and outcomes: A comparison of men and women in formal and informal mentoring. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84, 529-50.

Steiner, J.F., Lanphear, B.P., Curtis, P., & Vu, K.O. (2002). Indicators of research productivity among primary care fellows. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 17, 854-60.