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Copyright 1997 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. This document may be reproduced solely for educational purposes without the written permission of the National Academy of Sciences.
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Printed in the United States of America
First Printing, November 1997
Second Printing, March 1998
COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, ENGINEERING, AND PUBLIC POLICY
PHILLIP A. GRIFFITHS (Chair), Director,
Institute for Advanced Study
BRUCE M. ALBERTS,* President,
National Academy of Sciences
WILLIAM F. BRINKMAN, Vice President,
Physical Sciences Research, AT&T Bell Laboratories
ELLIS B. COWLING, University Distinguished Professor At-Large,
North Carolina State University
GERALD P. DINNEEN, Retired Vice President,
Science and Technology, Honeywell, Inc.
MILDRED DRESSELHAUS, Institute Professor of Electrical Engineering and Physics,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MARYE ANNE FOX, Vice President for Research,
University of Texas at Austin
RALPH E. GOMORY, President,
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
M.R.C. GREENWOOD, Chancellor,
University of California, Santa Cruz
RUBY P. HEARN, Vice President,
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
MARIAN KOSHLAND, Professor of Immunology,
Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley
THOMAS D. LARSON, Professor Emeritus,
The Pennsylvania State University
PHILIP W. MAJERUS,
Washington University School of Medicine
DANIEL L. McFADDEN, Director,
Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley
KENNETH I. SHINE,* President,
Institute of Medicine
MORRIS TANENBAUM, Vice President,
National Academy of Engineering
WILLIAM JULIUS WILSON, Malcolm Wiener Professor,
John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
WILLIAM A. WULF,* President,
National Academy of Engineering
LAWRENCE E. McCRAY, Executive Director
DEBORAH D. STINE, Associate Director
PROJECT GUIDANCE GROUP
DAVID R. CHALLONER (Chair), Vice President for Health Affairs,
University of Florida
ELLIS B. COWLING, University Distinguished Professor At-Large,
North Carolina State University
MILDRED DRESSELHAUS, Institute Professor of Electrical Engineering and Physics,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MARIAN KOSHLAND, Professor of Immunology,
Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley
MARY J. OSBORN,
Department of Microbiology, University of Connecticut Health Center
WILLIAM JULIUS WILSON, Lucy Flower University Professor of Sociology and Public Policy,
University of Chicago
Principal Project Staff
DEBORAH D. STINE, Project Director
ALAN ANDERSON, Consultant-Writer
PATRICK P. SEVCIK, Research Associate
LYNNE GILLETTE, Staff Officer
NORMAN GROSSBLATT, Editor
PREFACE
This guide—intended for faculty members, teachers, administrators, and others who advise and mentor students of science and engineering—attempts to summarize features that are common to successful mentoring relationships. Its goal is to encourage mentoring habits that are in the best interests of both parties to the relationship. While this guide is meant for mentoring students in science and engineering the majority of it is widely applicable to mentoring in any field.
This guide is descended from a series of related publications. The original concept grew out of the Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy (COSEPUP) report Reshaping the Graduate Education of Scientists and Engineers (1995), which showed that students need to be flexibly prepared for a range of careers and urged that graduate education be revised so as to prepare students better for productive and satisfying careers. (See Addendum.)
Discussions during and after the preparation of Reshaping indicated the need for a guide for students who are planning their education and professional careers. The guide that emerged, Careers in Science and Engineering: A Student Planning
Guide to Grad School and Beyond (1996), sought to help students take a broader view of the potential applications of their science and engineering education. A related student guide, which considers questions of ethics and scientific integrity, is On Being a Scientist: Responsible Conduct in Research (1995).
In the process of developing Careers, graduate and post-doctoral students in focus groups noted that faculty and advisers needed guidance as well to adapt to changing employment conditions. This guide is meant to complement Careers by assisting mentors and advisers in understanding how they might help students identify and respond to the challenges of becoming scientists or engineers. For convenience, the text contains several types of boxes:
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Tips: Steps to improve mentoring.
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Styles: Examples of poor and good mentoring.
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Facts: The context of mentoring.
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Profiles: A sample of nonacademic careers, from Careers in Science and Engineering: A Student Planning Guide to Grad School and Beyond.
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Summary points: Chapter summaries.
COSEPUP has also developed a sample form to help evaluate faculty mentors. The form can be adapted by individual institutions to suit their own needs. The version of the form offered here is most appropriate for use by advanced graduate students (for example, third-year and higher PhD students), postdoctoral fellows, and recent doctoral-program graduates who have had a long relationship with a mentor. The book and the form are both at the following Web address: http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/mentor. See "Mentoring; under "Resources; for further discussion of assessment methods.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The preparation of this guide was overseen by a guidance group consisting of David Challoner (chair), Ellis Cowling, Mildred Dresselhaus, Marian Koshland, Mary Osborn, and William Julius Wilson.
Valuable feedback was provided by an external advisory group composed of Douglas Bodner, George Campbell Jr., Carlos Gutierrez, Karen Harpp, Susan Kiehne, Susan Lasser, Susan Mims, Norine Noonan, Richard Tapia, and Michael Zigmond. Special thanks go to Beth Fischer and Michael Zigmond for excellent references, Martha Shumate Absher for information on students with disabilities, and Marjorie Olmstead for her article on mentoring junior faculty.
Three focus groups, attended by some four dozen faculty and students from 16 colleges and universities, gathered for helpful and spirited discussions of this guide in Washington, DC, at Sigma Xi in Research Triangle Park, NC, and at the California State University, Long Beach. Thanks go to Lynne Gillette, Ellis Cowling, Stuart Noble-Goodman, and Glenn Nagel for recruiting the focus groups.
LIST OF BOXES
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TIPS |
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Advice for New Mentors |
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Building Respect |
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Aptitudes and Goals |
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Two Key Career Questions to Discuss with Students |
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Writing Letters of Recommendation |
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Building Trust |
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STYLES |
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Good Mentoring: Seeking Help |
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Poor Mentoring: Cultural Bias (1) |
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Poor Mentoring: Cultural Bias (2) |
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Poor Mentoring: Inappropriate Behavior |
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Good Mentoring: Academic Warning Signs |
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Poor Mentoring: When Is a Risk Worth Taking? |
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Good Mentoring: Socialization |
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Good Mentoring: Being Flexible |
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Poor Mentoring: Honest Advice |
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Good Mentoring: Breaking Through Red Tape |
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FACTS |
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Why Be a Good Mentor? |
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Three Logistical Issues to Discuss with Doctoral and Postdoctoral Candidates |
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A Resume or a CV? |
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PROFILES |
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A Mathematics Major Who Became an Actuary |
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A Nurse Who Became a Research Manager |
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A Geneticist-Molecular Biologist Who Became a Patent Lawyer |
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SUMMARY POINTS |
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Chapter 1 |
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Chapter 2 |
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Chapter 3 |
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Chapter 4 |
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Chapter 5 |