Quick Reference Guide
If you only have five minutes, start here.
SyBBURE’s Mentoring Philosophy: We value individual approaches and prioritize student needs, allowing for both failure and success in authentic research experiences
The responsibility of mentorship: Mentorship is a commitment to invest time and energy in a student's development, with a focus on building a relationship.
The value the student can bring: The true value of a student can only be achieved by providing them with an authentic research experience, allowing them to build independence and contribute intellectually to the project.
Students are unique humans: Undergrads are unique individuals with varying needs and priorities. Mentors should adapt their style to meet each student's needs and prioritize communication and support.
Don't try to mimic past mentors, but instead analyze behaviors and needs to understand what works for each individual mentee.
Don't aim to be the mentor you wish you had; instead, learn from past experiences and strive to understand your mentee's needs.
Be the mentor the student needs by being a personalized mentor, not a copy of others. Fill in where you can based on your strengths and the student's needs.
"Push mentorship" involves building a relationship with the student and providing feedback and insight when observing their struggles, rather than waiting for them to come to you.
Tips For New Mentors: Clear communication, goal-setting, and building trust are key to successful mentoring of undergraduate research students. See the full list of tips here.
Common Mentor/Mentee Issues And Fixes: Common mentoring issues include mentees not showing up, not making progress, hassling mentors, needing more than mentors can give, not meeting expectations, blaming mentors, not understanding explanations, and not communicating. See recommendations for how to address these issues here.
Before You Start Mentoring: Before you agree to or volunteer to take a mentee, we recommend learning the structure of your lab, questioning what it means to be a good mentor, considering what project(s) to give your future mentee, understanding the typical workload and expectations of VU undergrads, thinking about different kinds of mentoring styles, and planning for how to balance mentee goals with your own.
Learning the structure of labs: Before you can train your mentee, first learn the structure of your lab by observing interactions, asking questions, and identifying roles such as the PI, lab managers, RAPs, post-docs, grad students, and undergrads.
How to be a good mentor: To be a good mentor, start by asking yourself what it means to you, why you want to be a mentor, and what characteristics make a good mentor. Tailor your approach to your strengths and weaknesses, communicate well, and value your mentee's contribution.
Formulating projects: Formulating projects for mentees involves considering their experience, skills, and interests. Projects should provide a real research experience, including the possibility of failure and frustration, but may require ramping up or starter projects. Mentors should identify questions that need answering in the lab and consider the training needed for your mentee to build confidence.
Overview of typical workload and expectations of VU undergrad: VU undergrads face high expectations and a pressure cooker environment. Workload varies, but the SyBBURE Searle program expects 8 hours/week during the academic year and 30 hours/week in the summer. Mentors should set a low bar, meet regularly, and provide time management help.
Different kinds of mentoring styles: Mentoring styles vary based on the mentor's personality and the mentee's needs. Examples include motivator, sponsor, anchor, master of craft, coach, connection broker, challenger, clarifier, and affirmer. The ideal mentorship style involves responsiveness, expertise, integrity, availability, confidentiality, sincerity, active listening, emotional intelligence, wisdom, empathy, humility, lack of ego, and commitment to the mentoring process. Awareness is key, and the best mentors help a mentee figure out what they need and try to meet those needs. Open dialogue and adaptability are crucial for a successful mentor-mentee relationship.
Balancing mentee goals with your own: Balance mentee goals with your own by setting actionable and quantifiable goals (both you and your mentee), checking in periodically, and being prepared to shift plans. Say 'no' when necessary, and update your goals periodically to be sure you are achieving what you need.
Setting Up a New Mentor/Mentee Relationship: Lay the foundation for your new relationship, through a lab orientation, setting the relationship tone and boundaries, establishing expectations for both of you, choosing communication modes and frequency, making responsibilities clear, and matching a student to a project.
Orienting your student to the lab: Create an onboarding guide for students with lab policies, safety procedures, software access, and training protocols. Update it regularly so it’s always ready for your next mentee.
Defining the relationship: You, as the mentor, have the responsibility of setting the stage and parameters of your mentor/mentee relationship. While it’s important to ask your mentee for their input to stress the ownership part from the start, you are the initiator.
Setting the tone: Decide how serious or light-hearted you will be with your student. Set a professional tone with your student, while acknowledging the potential for humor and relaxation.
Setting boundaries: Set boundaries to protect yourself, your mentee, and to adhere to Vanderbilt policies.
Setting expectations: Setting expectations involves defining values, relationship, and daily, weekly, and monthly goals, including meeting frequency, lab hours, and authorship
Choosing a communication mode and frequency: Communication methods include in-person or remote meetings, training sessions, and ad hoc messages. Decide what you will use and how regularly you both should use them. The use of calendar invites and group messaging systems is encouraged.
Establishing responsibilities: Establishing responsibilities involves communicating your commitment to your student's growth and success, while outlining the mentee's responsibilities in accomplishing their research project and learning new skills.
Matching students to projects: Matching students to projects involves considering their skills, interests, and goals. Providing project details and being open to switching projects is important.
Communicating With Mentees: To provide a richness of experience to this guide, we have collected insights from mentees and experienced mentors related to the communication methods that do and do not work.
Insights from mentees: Insights from mentees on effective communication with undergraduate research mentees, including setting clear expectations, personal engagement, and timely feedback
Best practices from experienced mentors: Best practices from mentors on communicating with mentees include creating a safe environment for questions, being positive, and understanding their constraints. Set clear boundaries and goals from the beginning.
Supporting Mentees: Supporting mentees involves considering their mental health, writing recommendation letters, providing career guidance, and recognizing when to call in another mentor.
Handling mental health crises: When a mentee experiences a mental health crisis, mentors should not attempt to fix or solve the issue, but rather sympathize, empathize, and help them get to safety and resources. Mentors should know the available resources, their reporting requirements, seek training, and take care of themselves. See some resources here.
Writing Letters of recommendation: Writing letters of recommendation or serving as a reference (and when not to) depends on how your mentee has performed. You should only agree to write a letter or serve as a reference if you can offer an overall positive reference.
Career guidance: Be cautious when providing advice on career paths, consider your own level of expertise, and avoid bias towards academic paths. Open up your network when needed and encourage exploration to help mentees identify potential career paths.
When to get help: When faced with serious issues, uncertainty, interpersonal conflicts, or recurring problems, seek help from your own mentors or available resources.
Bestowing more responsibility: To determine when to give your mentee more responsibility, make observations about how they work, try different approaches and see how they respond, ask them when they want more responsibility, and cautiously compare to past mentees. Start with low-risk projects to mitigate risks and allow the student to build confidence.
