CUR 2002 Workshop Report
 
Mentoring Workshop
 
On June 21, 2002, at the CUR 9th National Conference on the Connecticut College campus, a workshop entitled The Transformational Process of Mentoring was offered to help participants understand what mentoring is, what the process of mentoring involves, and how to develop and expand their individual mentoring styles. 

The word mentoring conjures up a number of descriptors. Workshop participants described a mentor as someone who provides guidance, is an example and role model (good or bad), advises, is non-judgmental, functions as a pseudo-parent, inspires, supports, and motivates. Mentoring originated from Greek mythology. Mentor was a wise and faithful advisor to Odysseus and was entrusted with teaching his son Telemachus while Odyssesus was away. Telemachus, through Mentor's direction and guidance, became an effective and loved ruler. Today, a mentor often refers to a friend, role model, advisor, and supporter of someone pursing specific goals (Peddy, 1998). Mentoring should not be viewed as a science since people have different goals and different life experiences. Rather, a mentor should assess the situation and determine the best help to offer such as defining what questions to ask, story telling, pep talk, involves risk, etc. "The art is not merely knowing what to say but how to say it and when." (Peddy, 1998). When asked to rate their effectiveness as a mentor, participants gave themselves an average rating of 3 on a 1 to 5 scale, with 5 being highest. The real question then becomes how to assess mentoring effectiveness.

The workshop utilized this discussion to lead into defining and describing the mentoring process. Participants were asked to consider what they thought was involved in this process. The group discussion defined the mentoring process to include finding out what the student's goals are and how a mentor can help the student achieve these goals. How you mentor is often defined by whom you mentor and who are as a person. Mentoring also involves two-way communication, nurturing, and is a continual process. 

Three different mentoring models were presented to illustrate the individuality of the process and highlight commonalities. The first process involved building trust to lay the foundation for collaboration, project cultivation, transformation of the mentee into colleague, followed by some degree of separation (Schnitzer, 2002). Another type of process may involve leading, following, and then getting out of the way. In this model, every experience involves a key mentoring moment (Peddy, 1998). A third mentoring process involved a personalized, intentional, organized, and assessable approach where mentoring is continual, dynamic, and transformative; it's about the journey, not the end (Schultz, 2001). Based on these models, the question to really consider is whether research-active faculty have an added responsibility when mentoring research students? If so, why or why not? The group was also reminded that mentors also need mentoring.

The workshop concluded by asking the participants to explore how they, as individuals could improve their current approach to enhance development activities that lead to a positive mentoring environment. The take-home message from this workshop was that everyone has an individualized process for mentoring, that there is not one prescribed approach, that the process is an ever-evolving one, and that each person should be challenged to find the most assessable and effective way to become better mentors. There were 10 people in attendance at the workshop, which was facilitated by Jeffery Schultz from the Rollins College Department of Chemistry. 

Mentoring Partial Reading List
(1999) Franklin Covey Project Management Seminar.

Halaby, R. (2001) Promoting undergraduate research in science. The Scientist 15, 35.

Hansen, D.E. (2001) Fostering research for undergraduates. Chemical and Engineering News 79, 59-60.

Malachowski, M. (1996) The mentoring role in undergraduate research projects. Council on Undergraduate Research Quarterly, 91-93, 105-106.

Peddy, S. (1998) The Art of mentoring: lead, follow and get out of the way. Bullion Books.

Phillips-Jones (1998) The Mentee's guide: how to have a successful relationship with a mentor. Coalition of Counseling Centers.

Phillips-Jones (1998) The Mentor's guide: how to be the kind of mentor you once had-or wish you had. Coalition of Counseling Centers.

Schnitzer, C. (2002) The Art of recruiting and mentoring undergraduate students as part of the American Chemical Society Younger Chemists Committee Symposium How to get started in research at a predominately undergraduate institution, Orlando, FL.

Schultz, J. (2001) The Transformational process of mentoring. The Council on Undergraduate Research Quarterly, 22, 72-73.

Shellito, C., Shea, K., Weissmann, G., Mueller-Solger, A., and Davis, W. (2001) Successful for creating positive student research experiences. Journal of College Science Teaching 30, 463-464.

Nicholls, G. (2002) Tomorrow's Professor message #386: Using mentoring as a form of professional learning. Retrieved February 8, 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://sll.stanford.edu/projects/tomprof/newtomprof/postings.html.

Zachary (2000) The Mentor's guide: facilitating effective learning relationships. Jossey-Bass.