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Most BUILD sites include a mentoring component in which trainees work with faculty mentors. Here, we highlight three programs to take a closer look at their mentoring initiatives.
Prompt: How do your faculty help support trainees through mentoring?
MSU ASCEND: An aspect of our mentoring activities includes ASCEND's Student Research Center (SRC) Health Research Concepts Competition (HRCC). The HRCC is designed to expose undergraduate students (beyond the ASCEND Scholars) to the research grant application process and to provide them with an opportunity to conduct their own research. Applicants work closely with a faculty mentor from Morgan State University or another university/institution. Faculty mentors review the students' proposals and provide feedback on student-drafted abstracts, which then go through a competitive review process. If a proposal is funded, the faculty mentor will then advise on and supervise the student's research.
PSU BUILD EXITO: The faculty career mentors are encouraged to adopt a student-focused advising role to support students with what is needed. As a result, the nature of mentoring relationships and conversation is tied closely to the goals and interests of each Scholar. Career mentors are able to offer a faculty perspective on a variety of topics including: career options, graduate school, addressing work-school-family balance, and more. Each Scholar is also assigned a primary research mentor who is connected with their long-term placement in a research setting. This person provides direct supervision and guidance as Scholars work to get acclimated with research activities in a real-world setting and gain skills needed for successful engagement in research projects. The goal of this multiple mentor model (which also includes a near-peer mentoring component) is built on the idea that each type of mentor is providing unique support and contributing to the success of Scholars distinctively.
UTEP BUILDing SCHOLARS: The BUILDing SCHOLARS program at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) fosters mentorship with a varied, multi-tiered approach. The foundation of the program lies in the research mentorship that students receive from one of over 70 faculty mentors with whom they are matched in their sophomore or junior years based on their research interests. This relationship forms the core of their research training as they obtain hands-on experience in the lab, as well as in writing and presenting, directly from their mentor.
