Mentoring Focus 5: Supporting and Training Faculty Mentors

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Contact Info: christa.reynolds@nih.gov

We can’t have successful mentoring interventions without successful mentors! Here’s a look at some of the interventions BUILD sites developed to ensure their mentors are prepared for their important work.

 

Prompt: How do your sites support mentors and help them gain the skills necessary to succeed as mentors?

 

Xavier: The Preparing Mentors and Advisors at Xavier (P-MAX) mentor training program, Entering Research at Xavier University of LA (ER XULA) mentee training program, Mentor-to-Mentee (M2M) mentee training program, and new faculty mentoring program represent just some the initiatives designed to formalize and institutionalize Xavier’s mentoring culture. This community has embraced the mentoring culture with approximately 50 percent of Xavier faculty participating in P-MAX.

 

Additionally, students participating in research training programs are required or strongly encouraged to participate in ER XULA. The post-baccalaureate technicians performing research on campus are encouraged to participate in the M2M Program which focuses on their needs as recent graduates in pursuit of a scientific research career. For more than a decade, new faculty have been supported in all aspects of their career through the new faculty mentoring program. These activities demonstrate that Xavier’s approach to mentoring is not merely a sentiment, attitude or feeling; it is collaboration of tangible initiatives, policies and people with a common goal and the understanding that all efforts must work in collaboration, and not isolation, to be most effective.

 

MSU ASCEND: In the ASCEND program, all lead/faculty mentors, near-peer mentors, and undergraduate mentees participate in training based on the National Research Mentoring Network’s (NRMN) "Entering Mentoring" and "Entering Research" curricula, and receive ongoing training and support. The mentor training sessions are open to and often attended by other MSU faculty and staff, as well as faculty from research partner institutions, such as the University of Maryland, Baltimore and Johns Hopkins University.

 

SF State: Mentors receive training throughout their involvement with the program. Using the NRMN “Entering Mentoring” series as a starting point, mentors take part in a series of trainings for mentors that focus on different aspects of developing and maintaining an effective mentoring relationship. To learn more about SF BUILD’s mentor training, check out the newsletter article, “Supporting faculty as agents of change.”

 

CSULB BUILD: In addition to the Graduate Mentors, trainees also do research under the guidance of a faculty mentor. To date, we have trained more than 90 CSULB mentors across four colleges and 24 different departments. Mentors represent all levels of faculty—Assistant, Associate, and Full Professors. Their training is based on the learning goals from the National Research Mentoring Network’s ‘Entering Mentoring’ program and includes supplemental multicultural communications training. By the end of Spring 2019, all mentors who have BUILD trainees will have completed CSULB BUILD Mentor training.

 

 

 

UTEP BUILDing SCHOLARS: At UTEP, mentorship extends beyond just undergraduates to include junior faculty who are invited to participate in the Supermentor Program. In this program, they are paired with senior faculty at one of the Pipeline Partner institutions to enhance their research skills and competitiveness for external funding, as well hone their mentoring skills so they are better able to support their students through effective mentoring relationships.

The Diversity Program Consortium Coordination and Evaluation Center at UCLA is supported by Office of the Director of the National Institutes of Health / National Institutes of General Medical Sciences under award number U54GM119024.
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