Mentoring
I am deeply committed to fostering effective and fruitful mentoring relationships.
Mentoring is a crucial part of learning to navigate academia, especially for women and under-represented minorities. As part of my graduate training, I am always seeking opportunities to learn to be both a better mentor and mentee. In my mentoring, I focus on communication, aligning expectations, and increasing my awareness and understanding of how to mentor students from diverse backgrounds equitably and inclusively.
Scroll down to learn more about my mentoring experiences, and a compilation of mentoring and diversity, equity, and inclusion resources available at UC Davis and beyond.
Mentoring is a crucial part of learning to navigate academia, especially for women and under-represented minorities. As part of my graduate training, I am always seeking opportunities to learn to be both a better mentor and mentee. In my mentoring, I focus on communication, aligning expectations, and increasing my awareness and understanding of how to mentor students from diverse backgrounds equitably and inclusively.
Scroll down to learn more about my mentoring experiences, and a compilation of mentoring and diversity, equity, and inclusion resources available at UC Davis and beyond.
I am grateful to have had the opportunity to mentor superb undergraduate students through several mentoring programs.
With support from the Sharon Gray Memorial Award, I guided my mentee Lahari Indraganti through her research project investigating plant phenological changes over time using S. tortuosus herbarium specimens, provided support during her senior year at UC Davis, and accompanied her to a Jepson Herbarium Workshop on identifying lichens and the California Native Plant Society's 2018 Conservation Conference.
As a mentor for the Evolution and Ecology Graduate Admissions Pathways (EEGAP) program at UC Davis, which partners with HBCU Howard University to bring excellent undergraduates to UCD to do research and learn more about the graduate school experience, I was privileged to mentor Lauren Okafor during her independent research project studying optimal thermal conditions for germination in S. tortuosus plants. See Lauren's vlog below for more about her experience as an EEGAP student.
Outreach
STEM Squad
I am an outreach committee member of the Equity in STEM and Entrepreneurship (ESTEME) graduate student group at UC Davis. The Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Squad is an after-school club led by UC Davis ESTEME volunteers at two local middle schools. We meet twice a month to guide students through hands-on activities such as writing computer programs, building airplanes, and dissecting owl pellets.
Family STEAM Night |
Picnic Day |
I led stations on science activities at the John Barrett Middle School alongside other ESTEME members
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UC Davis Population Biology graduate students held an exhibit on the Tree of Life at Picnic Day 2018 in which members of the public learn about the diversity of life on Earth
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Pollinator Hikes
As a research technician for the Winfree lab in 2015, I led public pollinator hikes discussing the diversity and conservation of native bees in New Jersey. Below are photos from walks held at the Raritan Headwaters Association's Fairview Farm Wildlife Preserve and at the Hutcheson Memorial Forest.
Mentoring resources
- Why mentor?: https://www.unl.edu/mentoring/why-mentoring-important
- Book “Entering Mentoring” (Howard Hughes Medical Institute) available free online as a pdf: http://www.hhmi.org/sites/default/files/Educational%20Materials/Lab%20Management/entering_mentoring.pdf
- General information: https://ictr.wisc.edu/mentoring/
- Mentoring graduate students and post docs: https://www.mcgill.ca/gradsupervision/
- Undergrad mentoring resources: http://www.undergradresearch.gatech.edu/sites/default/files/documents/key-general-mentoring-resources.pdf
- On finding a mentor:
- On getting what you need out of a mentor:
- Mentoring training services: https://cimerproject.org/#/
- Mentoring 101 at UCD (includes Myers-Briggs personality test, aligning expectations questionnaire): https://grad.ucdavis.edu/sites/default/files/upload/files/wow/mentoring_101_for_stem_s_lee_ucd_gso_-_handout.pdf
- Mentoring tips & toolkit: http://faculty.medicine.iu.edu/faculty-development/mentoring/
- List of resources: https://cimerproject.org/#/resources/index
- Aligning expectations: https://ictr.wisc.edu/mentoring/mentees-alignment-phase-resources/
- Aligning expectations questionnaire: http://www.itmat.upenn.edu/assets/user-content/Expectations%20Questionaire.pdf
- Paper on ID’ing and aligning expectations: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3476480/
- Mentoring plan examples:
- Example mentoring philosophy: http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~kbarger/Mentoring_Philosophy.pdf
- Training through the National Research Mentoring Network: https://nrmnet.net/
- Culturally aware mentorship: https://nrmnet.net/culturally-aware-mentorship/
- Tips for engaging in active listening: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c5/0d/7b/c50d7b39766a4eaea3ed19bde99b7629.jpg
Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity
These resources may be used to help mentors to:
- Partner with organizations to increase recruitment and retention of women and members of Under-Represented Minority groups
- Become better equipped to mentor students from a diverse range of backgrounds (resources and trainings through the WRRC, LGBTQIA+ center; UndocuAlly training through the AB540 center)
- Provide these resources to mentees as needed
Resources at UC Davis:
- ESA SEEDS (UCD chapter) (Strategies for Ecology Education, Diversity, and Sustainability)
- Graduate Diversity Orientation Program Extension (GDOPx) workshops for graduate students
- WiLD: Women in Life Sciences at Davis: http://wild.ucdavis.edu/
- WiSE: Women in sciences and engineering: http://wrrc.ucdavis.edu/resources/academic/wise.html
- UndocuAlly training: http://undocumented.ucdavis.edu/education/upe.html
- LGBTQIA+ center: http://lgbtqia.ucdavis.edu/index.html
- Peer Education Program: http://lgbtqia.ucdavis.edu/involved/peer.html
- Volunteer: http://lgbtqia.ucdavis.edu/involved/volunteer.html
- Queer Peers: http://lgbtqia.ucdavis.edu/involved/mentorship.html
- High School Outreach: http://lgbtqia.ucdavis.edu/involved/outreach.html
- Diversity Education Program: http://occr.ucdavis.edu/diversity/
- Women’s Resources & Research Center: http://wrrc.ucdavis.edu/
- Cross Cultural Center: http://ccc.ucdavis.edu/
- Campus Council on Community and Diversity: http://occr.ucdavis.edu/cccd/
- Graduate student diversity resources at UCD: https://grad.ucdavis.edu/current-students/diversity
- Alliance for diversity in science and engineering: https://stem.ucdavis.edu/resources/alliance-for-diversity-in-science-and-engineering-ucd-chapter/
Related readings (listed on Graduate Group in Ecology’s outreach web page):
Armstrong, M.J., A.R. Berkowitz, L.A. Dyer, and J. Taylor. 2007. Understanding why underrepresented students pursue ecology careers: a preliminary case study. Front. Ecol. Environ. 5: 415-420
Spalding, H.L., A. Gupta, D.J. Burshis, M.L. Knope, and K.A. Tice. 2010. K-12 science education and "broader impacts." Front. Ecol. Environ. Front. Ecol. Environ. 8: 217-218
Torres, L.E. and B. Bingham. 2008. Fixing the leaky pipe: increasing recruitment of underrepresented groups in ecology. 6: 554-555
Additional resources
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| Aligning Expectations Questionnaire |
| Steve Lee's Mentoring 101 Guidelines |