Faculty & Staff

This list is intended to spark thinking about different ways that a mentor can assist a mentee.  No mentor provides assistance in all, or even most, of these areas: nor are all equally important over the course of a career or in a particular mentoring relationship.  Mentoring varies with the evolving relationship of mentor and mentee, and their individual needs, expertise, and interests.

Research

• Help develop career vision and goals, and review mentee’s work, including manuscripts prior to journal submission, and grant proposals. Make targeted requests of senior colleagues to do the same.
• Assist in identifying and obtaining funding through proactive, one-on-one assistance via written and oral communications. If a grant is denied, read through the reviews and help your mentee re-package it for submission to another organization. The moment of a grant rejection is a key moment to provide active encouragement, support and help.
• Connect mentee with potential collaborators at the School.

Education

• Help your mentee learn to teach well, by observing them and providing feedback, and helping them develop courses by sharing syllabi, lecture notes, and names of faculty/academics who teach similar courses.
• Discuss school-specific teaching policies, such as academic dishonesty policies, exam regulations, and grading expectations.

Academic Networking

• Introduce your mentee to senior people in his or her field. When senior faculty in your department, suggest that your mentee be invited to meet and have meals with them.
• Share knowledge of networks, including funding, professional, academic, and educational organizations.
• Nominate your mentee for awards, talks, and leadership positions, and encourage your senior colleagues to do the same.

Facilitation

• Introduce your mentee to the rules, spoken and unspoken, of the school, including its mission, governance structure, norms, and procedures.
• Help your mentee understand that meetings are not solely for presenting successes, but for working through problems and supporting work in progress. In other words, encourage them to “show up” even when they’re discouraged.
• Create and reinforce the mindset that excellent people can succeed, and that they can enjoy the scholarly process.
• Be aware of possible exploitation of your mentee. Be aware of requests senior faculty make on junior faculty. Reach out to the chair or the offending faculty member to intercede as appropriate.