UMass STEM Ambassadors Program. Graduate Student Mentoring Manual

Transcription

1 UMass STEM Ambassadors Program Graduate Student Mentoring Manual Dr. Margaret Riley, Professor, UMass Amherst Meghan Gerson, Program Director, UMass STEM Ambassadors Program Jenna Farrell, Mentoring Coordinator, UMass STEM Ambassadors Program August

2 Table of Contents Chapter 1. Overview of UMass STEM Ambassadors Program How the program works Graduate student mentoring paths Mentoring goals Chapter 2. Mentoring Basics What is mentoring? A mentor s role The process of mentoring Mentoring values Chapter 3. Team- based Mentoring Mentoring a team of undergraduates Program details Team member roles and responsibilities Syllabus of mentoring topics Composition of a session Evaluation of a session Mentoring debriefs Chapter 4. Demonstration- based Mentoring Goals of demonstration- based mentoring Description of role as a demonstration- based mentor Demonstration guidelines Important concepts 2

3 Chapter 1. Overview of the STEM Ambassadors Program The UMA STEM Ambassadors Program (STEM AP) is a novel approach to increasing undergraduate student engagement in STEM subjects based upon the creation of a supportive academic and social community rich in a culture of research and inquiry. Students are surrounded by formal and informal advisors, graduate student mentors and colleagues, are exposed to a diversity of STEM- based research, education and outreach opportunities, and are encouraged to engage in independent research experiences, all of which will increase their academic skills and levels of confidence, their breadth and depth of research experiences and their sense of themselves as valuable members of and contributors to the university community of scholars. The primary target populations are 1st generation low- income students and underrepresented minorities. How the Program Works. The program targets undergraduate STEM majors, (primarily 1st generation students and underrepresented minorities) who sign up for a 4 credit year- long seminar course. Students are grouped into teams of 6 students and partnered with a faculty advisor, graduate student near- peer mentor, and an undergraduate team leader. Participants then engage in a variety of STEM- related activities. Graduate students are assigned to teams and are invited to participate in all activities. They are also assigned to lead several sessions each semester, which focus on conversations about their own research, their faculty s research, life in the laboratory, life as a graduate student, and STEM career options. Graduate students receive mentor training prior to the start of the program and meet periodically with other graduate students to discuss challenges that arise and share experiences. Graduate Student Mentoring Paths. Graduate students may participate in the program in one of three mentoring roles: Team Advisor. These positions will be assigned to seasoned graduate students who have a well- established research program and have experience mentoring. Team advisors (i) introduce their students to the culture of research, (ii) share their passion for research, (iii) provide a research seminar and teach their students how to dissect one of their own research articles, (iv) provide advice on STEM career opportunities, particularly with respect to the pursuit of graduate school, (v) help their students obtain research opportunities (in concert with program administrators), (vi) gain experience mentoring and teaching undergraduates, and (vii) have the opportunity to engage in a diverse palette of STEM engagement activities. Team advisors also serve as mentors to the Team mentors. Team Mentor. These positions are for relatively new graduate students or for those students who do not have significant experience mentoring. The Team mentors work with the Team advisor to (i) introduce their mentees to the culture of research, (ii) share their passion for research, (iii) develop 3

4 their own, and their mentees, communication skills, (iv) gain experience mentoring and teaching undergraduates, and (v) have the opportunity to engage in a diverse palette of STEM engagement activities. Middle School STEM Demonstrator. These positions are for those graduate students who would like to interact with younger students. Demonstrators receive training in how to create and offer effective STEM- based classroom demonstrations and interface with teachers participating in the program to understand what topics and methods of demonstration are most relevant for the particular student body they will be working with. They then create the demonstrations as a team, revise and rehearse them, and then travel to local middle schools participating in the STEM Ambassadors Program to ignite a passion for all things STEM in the middle school students and teachers. Finally, graduate students working as Middle School STEM Demonstrators will receive feedback from the participating students and teachers and will be given an opportunity to debrief as a team to evaluate the overall success of the demonstration and plan for future ones. This path requires slightly less of a time commitment, with most of the effort concentrated during winter break. Mentoring Goals. The primary goals of the STEM Ambassadors Program are to increase the retention and graduation rates of undergraduate STEM majors. Mentors are key to the success of this program. They are the participants who are most likely to change the lives of their mentees. What may surprise those new to mentoring is that it takes a relatively modest time commitment to have a significant impact on a student s future! An additional goal of the program is to increase the retention and graduation rates of STEM graduate students. Studies have shown that engaging in mentoring is an effective strategy to boost a graduate students own sense of self- confidence, to improve their approaches to engaging in research and their communication skills, and to inspire them to overcome challenges they face during their graduate studies. 4

5 Chapter 2. Mentoring Basics What is mentoring? Mentoring is giving your time, attention, insights, and advice. It is about developing a long- term relationship with your mentees and helping them achieve their goals. The NASA First Mentoring Program Handbook adds this useful summary: "A mentor is an experienced individual that serves as a trusted counselor, loyal adviser and coach who helps and guides another individual s development. The mentor is a confidant who provides perspective, helps the mentee reflect on the competencies they are developing, and provides open, candid feedback. Mentors have a unique opportunity to serve as a 'sounding board' for the mentee on issues and challenges they may not share with their peers or parents. Before you accept the responsibility of mentoring, it is critical for you to assess your skill, time, and motivation for mentoring. Mentoring a student will take time out of your schedule. However, there are numerous rewards for this investment. You should look at this as a professional development experience. If you are going into STEM industry, you will likely be given opportunities to learn to mentor before being given people who will report to you, but if you plan on a faculty career, then you will likely need to mentor undergraduate students and graduate students from the day you start your faculty job. So you can consider working with students as an opportunity to develop your mentoring skills during a shorter- term commitment (semester, summer, academic year). A Mentor s Role. Mentors play a key role in the intellectual and social development of their mentees. They engage in group and one- on- one conversations that serve to: Create awareness and ignite passion for STEM research, which is accomplished by discussing their research experiences and interests. Build confidence to take on challenges, which is accomplished by providing reassurance when needed and by helping students turn the difficulties that they face into challenges rather than threats. Each student as well as each mentor is unique. Some students are comfortable with autonomy and others want reassurance. Engage in socializing as a key factor in building trust and bonds. Some of the best discussions initiated by a student about his or her future plans may happen when walking to get a cup of coffee. Be there over the long term. Although not all mentor/mentee relationships last mentors should approach this relationship as if it will last a lifetime. Mentees will come to you for letters of recommendation, for support when they face challenges, and for recognition when they are successful. 5

6 The Process of Mentoring. Mentoring relationships are most effective if both the mentor and mentee begin by establishing some basic rules of engagement. Establishing expectations. One critical element of an effective mentor- mentee relationship is a shared understanding of what each person expects from the relationship. Problems between mentors and mentees often arise from misunderstandings about expectations. Importantly, expectations change over time so frequent reflection and clear communication about expectations are needed on a regular basis. You should spend time with your team discussing what your expectations are and ensuring that they align with what your team wants from their graduate student mentor. When mentoring freshmen the expectations are quite simple the mentor s goal is to help their mentees handle the challenge of adjusting to life as an undergraduate STEM major. This may require helping students decide what courses to take or what professors to work with, it may involve helping students learn how to study or deal with time management issues, it may involve simply providing a release from the pressure of classes. Over time, the mentoring expectations will shift to a focus on research. The mentor will work with their mentees to help them adjust to life in a research laboratory, to learn how to engage in research, keep a lab notebook, and communicate about research. As the mentee matures, the mentor will help the student determine their career path, which might involve helping them to identify a graduate school and prepare a graduate school application. Finally, once the student goes off to graduate school or industry, the expectations will shift to long- distance support, letters of recommendation, and perhaps meeting at conferences. Maintain effective communication. Good communication is a key element of any relationship and a mentoring relationship is no exception. As mentors, it is not enough to say that we know good communication when we see it. Rather, it is critical that mentors reflect upon and identify the specific characteristics of effective communication and take time to practice communication skills. Your task is to foster open communication with your team, address how difference in communication styles, background, position of power, etc. can alter the intent and the perception of what is said and heard and use multiple strategies for improving communication. Mentoring is all about communication and face- to- face meetings are always preferred. These interactions provide an opportunity for details to be shared as well as meaning and intent to be interpreted. Social media, e- mail, texting, are all very convenient, but also fraught with danger: misunderstandings resulting from not communicating clearly an accurate sense of mood. Conversely, there are times, when a well- composed e- mail can be much more constructive than having a face- to- face meeting. Remember, as with any form of electronic communication, it is best to assume that the intended person has not received it until there is confirmation. Similarly, when you receive electronic communication, respond as quickly as possible, even if only to indicate that the communication was received and to provide a time line for when you plan to 6

7 act on it. Communication Skills. There are four communication tools that can help facilitate working with students: o Active listening. Active listening simply means that you put a great deal of effort into listening to what a student is trying to say. In fact, you almost strain. Those who do this for a living, for example counselors, say they know they ve been engaged in active listening because they expend energy listening actively can be tiring. o Non- directive approach. The non- directive approach is just another reminder to not tell students what to do. It is disempowering to these young people to always be directed. Remember, mentoring is about helping students to make up their minds, not making their minds for them. A non- directive strategy would be to ask questions, which leads us to the next tool. o Open questions. These are questions that cannot be answered with a yes or no. Yes or no answers are conversation- enders. For example, instead of saying Do you think you could do better in this exercise if we did it again? a mentor could say, Give me a few ideas how you might be able to do this exercise better o Paraphrasing (reflective listening). Paraphrasing is also known as reflective listening because you reflect back what the student has just said to you. This is a great act of respect because it sends a signal to the young person that you are truly trying to understand them. Examples of paraphrasing lead- ins include: It sounds like what you are saying is and Correct me if I m wrong, but it seems like you are feeling Facilitating Student Discussions. Facilitation is a learned art. Mentors tend to improve and get more comfortable over time. Here are a few key points to remember as you start out: o Praise and affirm students. Remember that these students may not get praised often. So, in team discussion, as well as elsewhere, find what s right with them, not what s wrong. One strategy is to think about one positive thing about each mentee during each session, and share that praise with them. o Never demand that students share. Especially at first, there are some students that are really afraid to talk in groups. Never demand that they share. If they decline, you can say something like, that s okay, just jump in there later if you feel like it. o Don t call out a student s shyness. If someone is shy, don t say, Oh, you re shy you don t have to share. Calling out someone s shyness can make them even more sensitive. o Don t ask about their personal life. Both in groups and individually, don t try to dig deeply into a student s business. You might open them up and not know what to do afterwards. o Don t discuss a student s deep issues in the group. If a student brings up a deeply sensitive issue in the group, try to get them to wait to talk to 7

8 you after group, and then follow up. Examples of sensitive subjects are: pregnancy, someone committed a crime, or abuse or neglect. o Hold back on giving advice. This goes along with the definition of mentor. Work to foster discovery. Remember, mentoring is helping students to make up their minds. They have enough adults telling them what to do. Keep in mind that some students are at an advanced level while some need a little push or guidance to begin their thinking and brainstorming. Try to assist to your students abilities, without providing them answers and resolutions. o Watch your own self- disclosure. If you go deeply into your own problems and issues, even to give a young person hope, it takes the focus off of them, and they may be wondering why such an unstable person is mentoring them. o You don t have to be perfect facilitation is a learned art. Even if you say or do the wrong thing, if students see your heart is in the right place, they will forgive you. Balancing challenge and support. It is critical to a successful mentoring relationship that the mentor balances their support of their student s accomplishments versus their critique or criticism. With too much challenge the student can feel overwhelmed and their self- confidence can suffer and with insufficient challenge a student can feel the experience isn t relevant or worth their time. Mentors must always keep in mind that each student is unique and requires a different level of challenge and support. When mentoring freshmen it is best to err on the side of providing support and encouragement while your mentees transition from high school to college life. Once your mentor has entered a research lab, the challenges you place in front of your mentee will grow, but students will still need to be reassured that they are making valuable contributions to the research needs of the lab. "One of the goals of a good mentoring plan is to maintain interest and improve performance. People do not learn well under high anxiety, so it is important to identify the comfort zone of the mentee and the mentor, together with the organization. It is important to have everyone, students, faculty and staff moving toward the same goal. Learning is a social practice, so it is imperative to create an environment conducive to this social context." (Tom Windham, Consultant, Former Executive Director of SOARS and Special Assistant to Director, National Science Foundation). Assessing understanding. Determining if someone understands you is not easy and yet knowing if your mentee understands you is critical to a productive mentor- mentee relationship. Developing strategies to assess understanding is an important part of becoming an effective mentor. Your task is to assess your mentees prior knowledge of the research field, determine your mentees understanding of core concepts and procedures in the research field, consider diverse strategies for enhancing mentee understanding, explain the practice of science and research in your discipline Fostering independence. An important goal in any mentoring relationship is 8

9 helping the mentee become independent. On the path to independence you will need to consider the important roles you play in the academic, professional and personal development of your mentees, employ various strategies to build your mentees confidence, establish trust between yourself and you re your mentees, create an environment where mentees can achieve goals, and stimulate creativity. Addressing diversity. Diversity along a range of dimensions offers both challenges and opportunities to any mentor- mentee relationship. Learning to identify, reflect upon, and engage with diversity is critical to forming and maintaining an effective mentoring relationship. Your task is to recognize some of the biases and prejudices you bring to the mentor- mentee relationships, engage in conversations about diversity with your mentees, and understand how your interactions with and role modeling for the mentee can affect that mentee s decision to commit to careers in science. Dealing with research ethics. Mentors play an important role in both teaching mentees about ethical behavior and modeling ethical behavior. Moreover, there are many ethical issues to consider when entering a relationship with a mentee based on the power dynamic that exists between mentors and mentees. Reflecting upon and discussing ethical behavior is an important part of becoming an effective mentor. Socializing is a critical part of the mentoring experience. Socializing greatly impacts the bonds between colleagues who will work hard together, help each other, and then maintain contact after graduating. For an undergraduate, this can be a critical time to develop insight into the life of a graduate student. It also provides times for students to receive informal mentoring on their professional development. However, it is important to remember that socializing needs boundaries. Boundaries can be different for different cultures, backgrounds and at various institutions. It is a common misconception that one s own experience and boundaries are the same for everyone else as well. In particular, graduate students who are new to mentoring may need to adjust their view of boundaries. They should be careful to maintain appropriate boundaries with students. It is critical that mentors maintain a relationship that enables them to provide constructive and objective feedback to students. After the program. You are an important resource and connection for students as they continue their educational and professional development. You can have a very significant impact by remaining in touch after the student moves on. It is recommended that you maintain a professional role in their lives. This can be accomplished by sending occasional e- mails asking how the student is doing or updating the student on how the work has progressed or was used after they finished. Let the student know about other interesting work that you see. Check in on progress in regards to investigating and applying for graduate schools. Once a student has entered graduate school, continue to stay in contact for example, providing advice from your own experience as a graduate student, or arranging a meeting at a conference you 9

10 may both be attending. Include students in your own professional network. If you are talking with some of the experts in your field, invite the former student over and introduce them. Helping former mentees develop their professional networks is a great way to continue to mentor and to strengthen your own network. Mentoring values. The following list provides a sense of what we hope to achieve as mentors: Credibility: The better we are at what we do, the better mentors we will be. Integrity: It is not enough to talk about integrity, one must live the example. Many students do not take it seriously. Mentors must. Confidence: Many students start with little but can become outstanding when properly encouraged and appreciated. Cooperation: Discourage aggressive competition among students. Encourage cooperative efforts and openness. Chores and citizenship: Engage students in professional responsibilities: reviewing, proposal writing, presentations, mentoring. This does not mean handing these tasks off and letting them sink or swim. It means, for example, having a student write a review and then writing your own. Let them see how it changes. Give them the opportunity to learn all of the skills they will need later in their career. Communication skills: Brilliant research is of little use if not clearly understood. Correct English with good style is critically important. Practice writing and speaking skills constantly. Professional Activity: Send students to conferences to attend and give talks. Rehearse them extensively. Introduce them to colleagues. Get them plugged in. After graduation, recommend them for program committees, technical committees, reviewing chores. Credit: Give credit generously to students. It helps them and makes you look good. Intolerance of harassment: Although many institutions have programs for diminishing sexual harassment, it still exists. Be sensitive to potentially embarrassing or dangerous situations and do not accept inappropriate behavior from colleagues towards your students. Institutions should have a zero tolerance policy towards any mentors who abuse their position. Provide positive interactions: Use phrases that make a positive impression. These kinds of phrases and the interactions that support them show mentees that they are valued as thinkers, learners, and future practitioners. "That was great work." "Good idea!" "I also struggled with that." "Based on the goals you've expressed, graduate school would a good next step." "You are definitely excellent graduate school material." "If you are not really sure, then working in industry for a couple of years may provide you that insight into graduate level work that motivates you." "Tell me what you think we should do next. 10

11 Chapter 3. Team- Based Mentoring Mentoring a team of STEM Ambassadors. Freshman STEM Ambassadors will be assigned to teams based upon shared interests. Each team will be comprised of 5-6 undergraduates lead by a team leader (an advanced undergraduate). Each team will be assigned a graduate student mentor and either a faculty advisor or an advanced graduate student advisor. Mentors and advisors will have very specific responsibilities, which will change as your mentees progress through college. The program is designed for mentors and advisors to follow their mentees through their entire academic career. Although you are not required to participate beyond your original one- year contract, we will strive to ensure that the program is enriching and enticing enough to bring you back each year to continue mentoring the same students. Mentors and advisors should plan on contributing a minimum of X hours of contact time with their mentees. Each required session is indicated in the syllabus (see below). You will be invited to optional social gatherings and seminars, which we hope you will attend whenever possible. Program Details. STEM Ambassadors enroll in a four- credit, year- long seminar course. Figure 1 provides a tentative syllabus for the course in which the sessions are colored in pink, blue and green. Pink sessions are program- wide sessions that take place on designated Friday afternoons from 3:30 5:00 pm in Morrill Science Center, room tbd. These sessions focus on the transition from high school to college life and on providing information about resources available to STEM majors, research opportunities and career options. Mentors and advisors are invited to all program- wide sessions, however their attendance is not required. Blue sessions are team- based meetings, which are led by either the undergraduate team leader, the graduate mentor, or the team advisor. There are approximately 9 such sessions over the first year of the program and they focus on providing the team members with an introduction to research. These meetings take place in the laboratory of the faculty advisor or graduate mentor (or the program office if needed). Green sessions are off- site middle school mentoring sessions, which take place at the Holyoke Middle Schools. Graduate mentors and faculty advisors DO NOT participate in the off- site middle school mentoring sessions. Team Member Roles and Responsibilities. Each team will develop its own personality, focus, level of intensity and camaraderie. In part, this personality will reflect the undergraduates, their diversity and interests. However, the undergraduate team leader, graduate mentor and faculty advisors will play key roles in determining how the team functions and evolves. Undergraduate team leader. An advanced undergraduate with experience mentoring middle school students will serve as the team leader. These 11

12 students will commit to attending every session, they will record attendance, and will debrief with the program director each month to discuss challenges or issues encountered. They will also lead several sessions. The first, a team- based session is entitled Peer mentoring middle school mentoring, which will involve a conversation about the joys and challenges of mentoring middle school students. The team leaders will also spend time during this session serving as near- peer mentors to their teams. The second session led by team leaders is a program wide session entitled: Life as a STEM student. All of the team leaders will work together to start a conversation with the Ambassadors about the transition from high school to college life and the particular challenges of being a STEM major. The third session is a team- based meeting during which the team leaders serve as near- peer mentors. Graduate mentor. Graduate student mentors will attend approximately 5 sessions each semester and will lead several. The first session they are required to attend is a program wide session entitled Life as a STEM Graduate Student. All of the graduate mentors will work together to start a conversation about what it is like to be a STEM graduate student. This is the first time they will meet their mentees. They will then attend a series of team- based sessions that focus on introducing their research. They will attend the session entitled Faculty seminar, at which the team advisor will provide a research seminar. They will lead the next team- based meeting, entitled Dissecting a research seminar, at which they will work with their mentees to ensure they understood the faculty seminar and gain experience thinking like a researcher. They will lead the next team- based meeting entitled, Reading a 12

13 research article, at which they will help their mentees dissect a research article perhaps one they authored. The final required session in the Fall semester is the STEM AP Holiday Party. Faculty or graduate advisor. The team advisor will attend approximately 3 sessions each semester. The first required session is entitled, Faculty seminar, which is a team- based session at which they provide a research seminar. The second session is also team- based and is a formal advising session. The final session for the fall semester is the STEM AP Holiday Party. Composition of a session. Each session is approximately 1.5 hours. The meeting place and the day and time of the meeting will vary. Program wide sessions (pink session) will meet on Fridays from 3:30 pm to 5:00 pm and will take place in Morrill Science Center, room tbd. These sessions will be attended by all of the STEM ambassadors and their team leaders. Graduate mentors and faculty advisors are invited to attend, but it is optional. Team leaders will take attendance. Session content and activities will vary, but will range from creating a map to college success to social gatherings. Team- based sessions (blue sessions) will meet on a day and time that is determined based upon the teams availability. The program director will identify candidate meeting times at the start of each semester. The meetings will take place in the laboratory of the faculty advisor or in the program office if space is required. Team leaders will take attendance and the sessions will be led by the team leader, the team mentor or the team advisor (see syllabus). Off- site middle school mentoring sessions (green sessions) will meet on a day and time that is determined by student availability. The program director will assign each team member to a mentoring group. That group will travel to Holyoke Connections Program and engage in middle school mentoring activities. The team leader will take attendance and prepare their team members for each mentoring session. Session evaluations. Each session will end with a short evaluation activity, usually a short survey. The goal is to ensure that all sessions are relevant and effective. Team members are required to fill out all evaluation materials provided before they leave the session. Team leaders are responsible for ensuring that their team members hand in evaluations prior to the conclusion of each session. Mentoring debriefs. Team leaders and graduate mentors will be invited to participate in occasional mentoring debriefs. These private sessions will serve as a forum for mentors to discuss challenges of mentoring, problems with the program, problems with specific students, or any other relevant topic. The number and timing of these sessions will be determined by the program director. 13

14 Chapter 4. Demonstration- Based Mentoring Goals of Demonstration- Based Mentoring. Demonstrations are an integral part of the middle- school mentoring program. Students enjoy hands- on activities and respond well to an exciting variation in the program curriculum. The goals of demonstration- based mentoring for the participating graduate students are: Improve your science communication skills; Increase and enhance your leadership skills; Learn how to design age- appropriate demonstrations; Gain teaching experience; Increase understanding of diversity issues in participating school districts. The goals of demonstration- based mentoring for the participating middle school students and teachers are: Increase their understanding of and interest in science topics; Inspire students to become STEM professionals; Engage in hands- on science to encourage their interest in science; Learn that STEM professionals are diverse- just like them. Demonstration Guidelines. Below are some guidelines to keep in mind during the demonstration creation. We ask for the demonstrations to be: Appropriate for middle- school students. Participating teachers can provide valuable feedback on this item. Appropriate for the middle- school audience you ll be working with. Aptitudes may differ across participating school districts, and we want to ensure that we aren t over facing our middle school audience while they engage in the demonstration. Safe for the everyone involved; i.e. fire, explosions, and experimenting with live animals are a few of the things that aren t allowed. Participating teachers can provide guidance in this area as well if you are unsure of what is allowed/not allowed. Aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and the Common Core State Standards. These will be provided to all demonstration- based mentors. Important Concepts. Participation in this program will require a commitment on your part, and we urge you to keep the following items in mind as you become involved in the program: Keep your commitments. The program staff and the middle- school students and teachers value your contributions and participation in the program, and look forward to working with and learning from you. Set a goal(s) for your demonstrations. Having a clear idea of what you want to accomplish for a given demonstration will help you and your colleagues design 14

15 a meaningful experience for everyone involved. Let your passion show. You are committed to your graduate program of study let that passion show as you bring students through the demonstration. They will be inspired by your enthusiasm and actively engage in your demonstration. 15