Strategies To Continue To Lift As You Climb March 5, 2015 Jennifer R. Cohen,

My goals  Start a dialogue about student AND faculty/staff needs with regards to mentorship  Provide a supportive environment to facilitate discussions about  How your experiences have influenced your mentor philosophy  Challenges you face as both mentor & mentee  Develop strategies to help mentors mentor

Agenda  Share highlights from the graduate student workshop  In Search of Building Highly Effective Professional Relationships  Open discussion about the unique challenges faculty/staff mentors face at Purdue  Small group discussion about personal mentoring experiences*  Discuss benefits, issues and strategies for mentoring women and minority graduate students  Share Resources to help strengthen cross-cultural mentoring  Brainstorm: How do we bring this content to faculty who are not in the room?

Summary of student workshop  Topic: Building highly effective professional relationships, focusing on developing mentor relationships in an academic setting  Content: Defined mentorship, differences between functional & dysfunctional mentoring, consequences, built consensus on the importance of mentoring relationships, discussed the mutual benefits that both mentor and mentee receive, tools for being proactive mentees  Key Discussions: Pseudo-Mentors  How to recognize when you are not being mentored  Strategies for taking a proactive approach to creating a BOD  Feedback: What do you wish faculty realized about mentoring? The importance of cross-cultural, -racial and -gender mentorship

Graduate student feedback: What do you wish faculty realized about mentoring?

Open discussion about challenges that you face while mentoring students  Drawing on the knowledge and experience in the room  How did you learn to mentor students?  What unique challenges do faculty and staff mentors face?  Are there any barriers that faculty and staff encounter from the institution?

Reflecting on personal experiences  In a small group, answer these 3 questions:  When did a mentor make a difference for you?  How have your experiences as a mentee influenced your mentoring style?  Describe your experience with cross-cultural mentoring  Examples: cross-gender, cross-racial  Any benefits from this type of relationship?

Mentor benefits expand when cross-cultural mentoring is provided  Women who have a mentor can advance more quickly, and to higher levels, than those who are not supported  Potential benefits for mentors  Tangible: assistance with projects, increased power, networking as mentees advance, __  Personal rewards: validation, pleasure mentee achievements, and sense of competence, __  Extra benefits:  Gaining cross-cultural exposure and competence  Making a human capital investment that promotes equity and social justice in your discipline

One strategy for enhancing capacity with cross- cultural mentorship Faculty strategies  Seek Development  Diversity Training & Multicultural Competences  Create developmental networks

Resources  Society for Diversity  Inspiring Leadership with Diversity, Inclusion & Cultural Competence   NCORE  National Conference for Race & Ethnicity in American Higher Education   Federal  US Department of Education  My Brother’s Keeper  Cultural-specific and gender-specific:  journals, blogs, listservs, podcasts  udents.pdf udents.pdf

Resources  The Chronicle of Higher Education  No. 1 source of news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty members and administrators   TED Talks (videos)  Make great ideas accessible and spark conversations   TEDx Talks  Ideas from communities around the globe   Professional Organizations  Others?

How do we bring this content to faculty who are not in the room?  Brainstorm:  How can we avoid “preaching to the choir?”  What are some of the best practices around mentoring culture?  Any examples that could work at Purdue?  How can leadership encourage/incorporate the professional development of mentoring skill sets?

Index cards 1.How can the institution better support faculty/staff to become better mentors? 1.What do you wish students realized about mentorship?

Thank you Jennifer R. Cohen,

Graduate student feedback: What do you wish faculty realized about mentoring?  “Faculty need to realize 1) one-size does not fit all when mentoring, 2) encourage goal-making and 3) use unintimidating communication”  Faculty should “Be clear about what you offer. If you don’t want to mentor the whole student and only want to provide academic training, be honest and offer opportunities to find mentors elsewhere.”  “Faculty who are apart of the Faculty Senate should advocate greater oversight of mentoring. Good mentoring should be a tenure requirement.”  “Pseudomentorship is not a benign activity.”  “It takes time and effort to develop. PhD students really need good mentors not just advisors”  Students and faculty should write down mutual expectations