Mentorship

In graduate school, an academic mentor is an experienced faculty member who serves as your role model and guide—offering knowledge, guidance, and encouragement aimed at helping you become a full member of your profession. Your academic mentor will take an active interest in your research and help ensure you stay on track to meet your academic and professional goals. 

Other day-to-day responsibilities include helping you choose courses that meet your interests and needs, consulting with you about your academic pathway, making you aware of professional opportunities, and generally helping maintain your professional wellbeing. A mentor in the STEM fields may also provide equipment, project space, and technical training.

Sometimes the academic mentoring process includes sponsorship, as well, whereby a mentor sponsors or nominates you for awards or other recognition. Your mentor might, for example, promote your work for publication, help you build a professional network, nominate you for an internship, or help you advance a research proposal. A strong endorsement from a mentor can also act as the catalyst for obtaining postdoctoral training and employment. 

What’s the difference between a mentor and an advisor, or an advisor and a graduate program director? How about a program director and a supervisor? Faculty holding these roles can all support you during your WMU graduate career, but in different ways. 

• Academic advisor: Every graduate student should have an academic advisor, although their responsibilities vary by department. Typically, students are matched with advisors who share their research interests. Your academic advisor will help you understand your degree requirements, departmental policies, and other ins and outs of your program. Advisor and mentor responsibilities sometimes overlap. 
• Graduate program director: This person oversees the various aspects of the department’s graduate program, including course development, policy administration, program management, and admissions. The graduate program director will typically give you an orientation when you start the program and also help connect you to an advisor and mentors. This person may also offer career advice and provide information about funding
• Graduate coordinators: Administrative staff for the graduate programs. 
• Thesis/dissertation supervisor: A dissertation can take a year or more to research and write. During that period, your thesis/dissertation supervisor will serve several key roles: providing guidance, keeping you on schedule, offering feedback on your writing, and helping you navigate research difficulties. This person may also serve as your academic advisor. 

Research proves that effective mentoring in graduate school results in higher levels of student productivity, self-esteem, and confidence—all of which can raise your motivation to work hard and complete your degree.^[1] Students with strong mentors also attend and present more at conferences. That extra exposure is particularly valuable because it allows you to meet and establish connections with key scholars in your field. Moreover, when mentored students graduate, they’re more likely to secure a postdoctoral position, land a job, and experience career-path success.^[2] 

A mentor can serve multiple roles in supporting you in graduate school, but one person alone cannot fill every mentoring need. For this reason, it’s a good idea to start thinking early about forming a mentor team: a group of people collectively invested in helping you succeed. 

Begin by identifying the kind of support you’ll find most useful in different aspects of your academic career and beyond. This Mentor Worksheet (live link) will help you think in terms of three main support areas: academic, social/emotional, and career/networking. Each category includes a set of suggested mentoring tasks, and you may want to add others important to you and your unique needs. 
 

In choosing your mentors, consider not only your department faculty, but also university staff, faculty specializing in your research area at other universities, professionals in your field, peers, and your family and friends. Your academic advisor, thesis/dissertation supervisor, and graduate program director may be able to help you connect with other scholars, alumni with relevant interests, and career professionals working in your field. 

Some questions to consider as you narrow your prospective mentor list:

• What do you hope to accomplish in graduate school (besides getting a degree)?
• What kind of training will you need that you won’t get from your coursework?
• What are your personal and academic weaknesses—areas where you might need extra help?
• What kind of research projects or creative outlets interest you?
• What is your ideal career and who holds that position now?
• What are some challenges you think you may encounter?

At least one study has shown that women and people in under-represented demographic groups reported facing greater academic challenges in STEM fields than their peers.^[1] Depending on your situation, you might consider choosing one or more mentors with whom you share a demographic kinship—people who can understand, empathize, and offer support and advice if you ever feel treated differently based on factors unrelated to your studies. 

Strive to find mentors offering a range of expertise who can spend time with you and offer constructive, timely feedback. 
 

Most graduate school mentorships are formed by the graduate student initiating the relationship.^[1] With that in mind, you should not wait for support to come to you. Instead, actively pursue it.

After you identify possible mentors, write a few notes or an informal script before you approach them to ask for a meeting. Ideally, you want your prospective mentors to view the relationship as mutually beneficial. You gain expert insight and encouragement and, in turn, they gain the satisfaction of nurturing a rising scholar or supporting a friend or peer. 

WMU faculty all understand the importance of mentors to graduate students. They’re used to hearing such requests and will likely feel flattered and gratified that you sought them out. 

On first contact, be prepared to…

• Introduce yourself. Briefly describe your research interests.
• Explain your purpose. You’re a new first-year student and you’re hoping to establish a mentorship. 
• Explain why you chose that person. With faculty, briefly identify elements of their scholarship, pedagogy, or research that you find especially compelling or that align in some way with your interests and academic and career goals. 
• Ask for an appointment to meet in person or virtually. 
   

Bring a laptop or other note-taking materials. After getting to know one another, strive to establish parameters for the relationship. Points to discuss:

• Your short and long-term goals. Come to the meeting with these lists handy and be prepared to review them with your prospective mentor.
• Mentorship duration. Approximately how long will you work together? In most cases, the length of your relationship will equal the length of your program. Some mentors, however, you may only need to see during the first year or two, or the last. 
• Frequency and venue. When, where, and how often will you meet—every 2 weeks? Every month? Twice a year? 
• Expectations. Discuss the list of tasks you compiled on the Mentor Worksheet. How could the prospective mentor help you complete one or more of them? 
• Confidentiality. What information (if any) needs to be kept between the two of you?
• Separations. Will the relationship continue during the summer? If so, will you use a different schedule then? What happens in the case of a sabbatical? 

After you finish taking and revising your notes from this first meeting, email a copy to your prospective mentor for review. Include a short thank-you note to show you value their time and attention.   

Consider starting each meeting by reviewing an updated list of your goals. If there’s anything your mentor can do to help you meet those goals (and isn’t already doing it), do not be afraid to ask for support. Remember, your mentors are invested in helping you succeed. 

As with any relationship, the mentor-mentee dynamic is bound to change over time. Those first meetings might feel a little stilted, and that’s because it takes time to develop trust and rapport. If you are committed to showing up consistently, following through on your assigned tasks, and being courteous and inquisitive, you’ve taken the steps needed to develop strong and productive mentor relationships. 

Even under the best conditions, mentorships can run into problems. Here are some examples and suggested ways to handle them: 

• Your mentor has too many conflicts. Demands on faculty wax and wane, and one semester you might notice your mentor is no longer able to meet with you as often. Address this problem as soon as you notice it. If you can’t meet face-to-face with your mentor, write a courteous email explaining your concerns and asking for suggestions on what to do next.  
• The relationship gradually trails off. One missed meeting can sometimes lead to another, and before you know it, you’ve gone a month or two without seeing each other. Ask yourself at this point whether that mentor relationship is worth resuscitating. What were you getting out of it that your other mentors aren’t providing? Then, follow up with your mentor to suggest either a new meeting time or a disbanding of the mentorship.  
• You decide it’s not a good match. You might have several reasons: personality differences, communication issues, research conflicts, or even personal/philosophical disagreements. Whatever the case, consider confiding in a peer, another mentor, or the graduate program director. Ask for advice. If that strategy doesn’t yield a workable resolution, request a meeting with that mentor. Politely explain that you need to end the mentorship, and thank that person for taking the time to serve as your mentor.  Next, look for another mentor to step in and fill that person’s role.
• Your mentor goes on leave. Ideally, you will have created a backup plan for this situation on your first meeting. If not, ask to meet with your mentor so you can discuss a contingency plan.
• You experience a conflict with your mentor. Conflicts are natural and often unavoidable. You might disagree with your mentor over a deadline or take issue with a research protocol, for example. Moreover, you may feel nervous about addressing it because of the mentor-mentee power dynamic. If you are unable to resolve the issue with your mentor directly, confide in your graduate program director and ask for advice or possible mediation. 
• Your mentor engages in inappropriate behavior. If your mentor harasses you in any way or engages in sexual misconduct, report it to WMU’s Title IX coordinator immediately: (269) 387-6316. 
• Your mentor engages in ethical misconduct. Suppose you see your mentor cutting corners or otherwise failing to follow research protocols. In that situation, meet with your graduate program director, explain what you observed, and ask for guidance. 

Building strong mentor relationships in graduate school takes time and diligence, but the benefits will more than compensate for your efforts. Studies show positive mentor relationships result in consistently less anxiety and depression among graduate students.^[1] Mentors can guide you, offer reassurance, and open doors while you pursue your degree, then later serve as valuable advocates for you during job searches and professional advancement opportunities.