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Mentoring tools

Having a well-prepared mentor can make a huge difference in undergraduate research. We have compiled a list of resources here to help mentors refine existing skills and develop new ones. This list is updated periodically when new resources are found.

Review ten salient practices of undergraduate research mentors

Shanahan, Ackley-Holbrook, Hall, Stewart, and Walkington (2015) note that the "well-established benefits for students involved in [undergraduate research] are dependent, first and foremost, on high-quality mentoring." (p. 1) Table 1, on p. 4, is a good overview of the article's point, which comes after a review of more than 100 scholarly articles.

You may also want to check out Elon University's Center for Engaged Learning, which has more resources on the salient practices.

Create a mentoring agreement

A key aspect of effective mentoring is establishing clear expectations for all parties from the beginning. A mentoring agreement can serve an easy way to outline what is expected of all parties. Check out the sample, which is a Word document, and adjust it as needed (the sample was created at Oregon State University in 2019 and retrieved from the University of Washington's Office of Undergraduate Research in 2023). Feel free to edit the document to suit your mentee's needs and goals.

Become an inclusive and equitable mentor

This free and open-access resource by Pierszalowski and Buser, entitled Mentoring the Next Generation: Using Undergraduate Research to Broaden Engagement and Impact in STEM, is a comprehensive guide to inclusive mentoring that is applicable for more than just STEM mentors. Feel free to use the guide's sections whenever you want to consider equitable practices at specific points in your mentoring relationships.

Promote belonging at all levels

Creating an equitable and inclusive environment means welcoming all parts of a student and their identities. The University of Washington's Office of Undergraduate Research created a conversation starter document to help mentors who aren't sure where to begin discussions about identity. It's important to note that student responses should be met with curiosity, enthusiasm, and empathy. Guilford's Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Center for Principled Problem Solving can also help with questions about identity, diversity, equity, and inclusion in academic spaces.

Risien and Storksdieck (2018) discuss how to create an "impact identity", which is a concept that "integrates scholarship in a scientific discipline with scoeity needs, personal preferences, capacities and skills, and one's institutional context." They argue that adopting this concept will help drive the recruitment and retention of a more diverse range of academics.

Other resources