SyBBURE’s Mentoring Philosophy
The SyBBURE Searle Program is unique among undergraduate research programs. While we have a mission to provide students with authentic research experiences that can contribute to their development as young researchers, the program puts the students first, gives them room to fail and to succeed, and listens and responds to their needs.
As such, the program is fueled by the strength of our interactions with the students, including the mentor/mentee relationships. Over the nearly 20 years of this program’s existence, our mentoring philosophy has been refined and honed by each person we’ve been fortunate to have as a part of the program, whether student, faculty, or staff.
The responsibility of mentorship
In research environments, we often find ourselves being thrust into advisory roles; yet, there is a difference between advising and mentorship. Advising can often be transactional and limited in time and context, while mentoring focuses on the relationship and may span a lifetime. Advising can turn into mentoring or be mislabeled as mentoring. Both come with responsibility, but mentorship is a particular breed of responsibility. It is a commitment to another person that you will pay attention to them, give them some of your mental energy, invest time in them, be willing to share insight with them, clear the way for them, help them position themselves…we could go on, and on. It’s not unlike being a good older sibling.
This level of responsibility can be burdensome to the mentor, and this guide provides some suggestions on protecting yourself. Remember that this is a relationship that develops over time. You cannot provide mentorship to a student, for instance, around what they may be best suited to do post-graduation until you’ve gotten to know their skills, interests, values, strengths, etc. It may be a slow progression or a fast one based on what you naturally have in common with your mentee, but it’s important that you recognize BEFORE taking a student that you are committing a portion of your time, energy and effort to that student. If you are spread thin, wait to take on that student for both your sake and theirs. We are all different when it comes to the number of people we can effectively mentor. There’s no shame in limiting yourself to the number of mentees you can handle. And there’s no awards that come from mentoring the most people. It is about the quality of the relationships that come from your responsibility to your mentees.
The value of a student
The second critical part of our mentoring philosophy is in the attitude with which we approach the value of a student. A student might be a set of extra hands to help you on a project, but if you give them a list of tasks to complete as opposed to opening the door for them to mentally engage in and learn about the project, you sell the student short and limit the real value their “extra hands” can contribute. We’ve seen many situations where the door is open for the student to engage, and they never make the choice to walk through it. The door being open to them is the critical factor. While you might need a lab worker to check boxes off on a task list (and we by no means fault you in that–Student Employment is the route to go for those needs), this is not the type of experience that the SyBBURE program supports.
The SyBBURE Searle Program supports undergraduate students being given graduate level research experiences, or at least building towards that. The best way for a student to see whether they like and are suited to research is to give them an authentic experience. This must be within reason based on where they are starting in terms of skills and experience. Safety and regulations must certainly be adhered to as well. A goal of a mentor that sees the real value in a student is to work towards the student’s independence. Consider this analogy around learning to drive. You might start by driving the car with them in the passenger seat and explaining to them what you are doing. Next, you let them take over as the driver in a controlled setting with you in the passenger seat. Maybe then you move to the backseat. Then to a less controlled setting. Eventually, you leave the car and have them teach others to drive. If you follow this conceptual progression, you allow the student to build independence, take on ownership, and contribute intellectually to the project. This is what a real research experience is, and both you and the student stand to gain more value by allowing them that opportunity.
The number of graduate students who have remarked that they couldn’t have finished all of their doctoral research without their key undergrads is more than we can count. We’ve watched faculty build their own independent research labs on the backs of undergrads for which they’ve opened the door to independence. We’ve seen how being valued by a lab propels young researchers to success. Giving students a lab home in which they have ownership and can contribute even allows the student to bring value to the lab as a whole as opposed to only contributing at the project level.
As you consider the type of project that might open the door and lead the student towards contributing high value, check out this post on Formulating Projects.
Students are unique humans
What works for one may not work for all. Think back to your training, however long ago or recent it was. Perhaps it was slow-paced and laid back. Or everything was urgent and intense. Perhaps it all went wonderfully, or perhaps not. Some environments may have been ideal for you and others may have grated you at the core of your being. We are all human–dynamic, stubborn or otherwise. If you recall that principle as you engage with your mentees, you will allow them the space they need to be who they are.
Undergrads are inherently different from more seasoned researchers, particularly until they have achieved that ownership and independence discussed in the last section. They may be less committed, and based on the time of the year, may not have full-time effort to contribute. They also have a primary priority of their education.
We tell all our students that they will have a tough time if they attempt to do more than three things: 1. School, 2. SyBBURE/Research, 3. Whatever they choose here. I could also make a list of students who were successful exceptions to this rule, often because of strong time management skills. Other students benefit greatly from being reminded that it is acceptable to limit the amount of stuff they do.
Vanderbilt is a special place that comes with a great deal of pressure to undergrads. The SyBBURE Searle Program attempts to be a respite from those pressures, while also giving students an experience that could catapult them to their future.
It is a delicate balance. The way we maintain it is to break every rule we make based on the needs of the students. Each student is unique in their needs, both overall and even from moment to moment. We spend time getting to know and understanding each student and recommend you do the same with each student you mentor. Through that understanding, we adapt the program to meet their needs, just as you would be able to adapt your mentorship style and behaviors to meet their needs.
Remembering that each student is an individual will allow you to find what works for the two of you in your mentor/mentee relationship. The need for communication throughout is critical and can be read about in the Communicating with Mentees section. And viewing students as humans goes hand-in-hand with supporting them.
The approach to mentorship
If you are a new mentor considering the approach you want to take or a veteran wanting to refresh, consider these ideas.
Don’t mimic the mentors you’ve had
You are you, with your own unique strength and skills and ways of interacting with the world and other people. Even if you have a great example of a mentor from your own life, chances are that you aren’t similar enough to mimic them. What you can do instead is capture what it was that made the mentorship experience good for you and try to understand why it worked for you. You might recall that others mentored by the same person didn’t have the same positive experience, so it is critical to not just think about your mentor or you, but the overlap. This starts you down a path of analyzing people’s behaviors and needs, can maybe bring some insight about yourself, and also allow you to think about the world beyond you (i.e., your mentees and how they may react to a certain mentorship approach that you wish to bring). Let your curiosity lead you to ask new or existing mentees about what’s working and not working for them and if they understand why.
Remember that you aren’t that good mentor you had and your current mentee isn’t you. What works for two specific people will not necessarily work for two other people.
Don’t be the mentor you wish you had
For very similar reasons, swinging the opposite way of a bad mentor will not necessarily accomplish much in the way of providing your mentee with a good experience. But considering why the mentorship experience wasn’t great for you can take you down that path of understanding and curiosity with your own and future mentees.
In all reality, you’ve probably had mentors that were in the middle. Some things they did were great, other things were not. They likely never were trained in how to mentor others and were doing what they could amidst all of the stress of academia. Forgive them and try to learn from the experience. Being the mentor you wish you had will limit the mentorship you can provide to your mentee since they may not have the same needs as you.
Be the mentor the student needs
Instead of mimicking or inverse mimicking others, try to learn from your own experiences and use that understanding of yourself and your desire to be a good mentor to fuel your curiosity to learn what each of your mentees individually needs.
It is very important to note here that you cannot possibly be everything your mentee needs, but you can fill in where it makes sense for you based on who you are. A student may have several mentors, try to provide what they need that you are well-suited to provide.
A note on “push mentorship”
Many guides for mentoring put the onus on the mentee to come to the mentor with their needs and questions. While in certain situations, this can make sense, a young researcher may not even begin to know what they need or what you can help them with. An alternate approach that we’d suggest is the notion of “push mentorship.” This is where you build an understanding of the student, build a solid relationship with them, and when you observe their struggle, you bring it up to them. Certainly, you can ask if they would like the insight you may have before forcing it on them, but generally, if the relationship is there, they will, more often than not, want the insight.
Push mentorship can also be considered a way to give feedback. You are in a great position to observe the strengths and capabilities of your student. Share with them what you observe. We’ve seen students learn a great deal about themselves in the context of the research environment through this type of feedback. It can encourage them to press on when research gets challenging (if it ever stops being) because they see how they fit into it. You can also help them play to those strengths, which often leads to fulfillment in life.
Mentorship is a responsibility that takes time and effort, but that you and your student stand to gain value from providing you lay a foundation of respect for the unique individuals involved and a willingness to work towards understanding each other in a way that optimizes the mentor/mentee relationship.
