Workshops and Events
Using the Science of Effective Mentorship to Optimize Faculty-Graduate Student Mentoring Relationships
September 8, 2022, 10:30am to 12:00pm
STEW 302
Open to all
In this keynote talk, Dr. McDaniels will provide an overview of the findings of the National Academies Report, The Science of Effective Mentorship (as well as other research) and discuss how to leverage those findings, as well as the expertise that already exists on Purdue’s campus to address critical topics in graduate student mentoring, such as interpersonal boundary management, graduate student mental health, elevating and naming social identities in the mentoring relationship, and sustaining mentoring relationships online. Audience members will walk away with new resources and insights to bring to their work as graduate students, faculty, and academic leaders.
Culturally Responsive Mentorship: Evidence-Based Approach to Promoting Graduate Student Success
September 8, 2022, 3:00pm to 4:15pm
STEW 306
Open to faculty and postdocs only
In this workshop designed for academic leaders and faculty, Dr. Melissa McDaniels from the Center for the Improvement of Effective Mentorship will introduce research and practices in culturally responsive mentorship. She will facilitate reflection and conversation among colleagues about how culturally responsive practices are evident (and not evidence) in current mentorship practices in departments and research programs. Time will be allocated for questions, answers, and resources.
Activating Your Mentoring Network: A Workshop for Graduate Students
September 9, 2022, 9:30am to 11:00am
STEW 302
Open to grad students and postdocs only
Graduate students and postdocs from all disciplines are invited to this interactive workshop designed to provide practical tools to activate a mentoring network with breadth and depth. Participants will be led through a series of exercises to identify their own professional development priorities and intentionally link those priorities to individuals that can contribute to their professional development in those areas. Time will be given to conversations about how to engage current and future mentors in ways that are mutually beneficial and sustainable.
Mentoring Dialogs - Seeking Mentors
September 13, 2022, 11:00am to 12:00pm
Young Hall, Room B-83
Join Dean Linda Mason and Associate Dean Melanie Morgan for an unstructured discussion on mentoring. Discussions are loosely based on the curriculum developed by the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) and include the following topics this semester: maintaining effective communication with your mentor, aligning expectations in your mentoring relationship, and do you need multiple mentors? Each discussion will feature one of these topics. The discussions are intended to help graduate students strengthen their mentoring relationships with their major professors and other mentors in their academic career.
Mentorship Training for Postdocs: Defining and Planning for Independence
October 5, 2022, 4:00pm to 5:15pm
Online
Postdocs at times find themselves striving for more independence while mentoring students. In this interactive session, we will discuss mentor roles and goals for launching postdocs' own independence as well as how to foster degrees of independence for mentees.
Mentoring Dialogs
October 12, 2022, 2:00pm to 3:00pm
Young Hall, Room B-83
Join Dean Linda Mason and Associate Dean Melanie Morgan for a unstructured discussion on mentoring. Discussions are loosely based on the curriculum developed by the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) and include the following topics this semester: maintaining effective communication with your mentor, aligning expectations in your mentoring relationship, and do you need multiple mentors? Each discussion will feature one of these topics. The discussions are intended to help graduate students strengthen their mentoring relationships with their major professors and other mentors in their academic career.
The Dark Side of Development: When Mentoring is Problematic and What to do About It
October 14, 2022, 10:30am to 12:00pm
STEW 302
Seminar on the mentoring research of Dr. Dolan from University of Georgia. This seminar is presented by Erin Dolan is a professor of biochemistry & molecular biology and Georgia Athletic Association Professor of Innovative Science Education at the University of Georgia. Erin studies the career development and decision-making of undergraduate and graduate life science students in the context of research experiences and research training. With funding from the National Science Foundation, her group is working to delineate the features of research experiences that influence students’ career trajectories, develop measurement tools for studying undergraduate and graduate research experiences and mentorship, and promote change toward more effective and inclusive undergraduate and graduate education. She served on the National Academies consensus committee on mentoring in STEMM, which produced evidence-based recommendations for improving undergraduate and graduate mentorship.
Mentoring Graduate Writers
October 25, 2022, 2:00pm to 3:30pm
MJIS 1001
A good deal of research indicates that mentoring graduate students on their writing is fraught with problems. This initial workshop will share a range of best practices around mentoring and writing in the disciplines, with the hope of making mentoring graduate writers more empowered, effective and sustainable. Participants will learn strategies for sound response and receive materials to take away and study. Depending on faculty interest, additional workshops will be scheduled to address needs that arise during the conversation.
Mentoring and the Dissertation Process
November 1, 2022, 2:00pm to 3:30pm
MJIS 1001
Among the most consequential documents that writers produce in graduate school is the dissertation. Strong mentoring at specific critical junctures in the dissertation process can strengthen both the document itself and graduate students’ abilities to later support their own graduate students. Unfortunately, most faculty receive little to no training about the writing instruction central to the dissertation process, from invention to final deposit. Instead, they rely upon their own experiences producing a doctoral thesis, which might have been problematic and trauma producing or wonderful yet still mystifying. This workshop incorporates current research on graduate student writing and builds on insights about graduate student struggles that the Writing Lab gains through working with dissertation writers. Faculty will be offered actionable strategies for helping dissertation writers be more effective. The workshop also will offer faculty mentors guidance on when and how to direct their students to the Writing Lab for intensive and on-going support.
Mentoring Dialogs
November 9, 2022, 9:30am to 10:30am
Young Hall, Room B-83
Join Dean Linda Mason and Associate Dean Melanie Morgan for a unstructured discussion on mentoring. Discussions are loosely based on the curriculum developed by the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) and include the following topics this semester: maintaining effective communication with your mentor, aligning expectations in your mentoring relationship, and do you need multiple mentors? Each discussion will feature one of these topics. The discussions are intended to help graduate students strengthen their mentoring relationships with their major professors and other mentors in their academic career.
Mentorship Training for Postdocs: Encouraging Mentees and Building Self-Efficacy
November 30, 2022, 4:00pm to 5:15pm
Online
Both as mentors and mentees, postdocs often face challenges for persisting in their research and they encounter students who need to learn resiliency. In this session, postdocs will learn how to effectively encourage their mentees and reflect upon their motivations as a researcher.