General Recommendations and Resources
A good starting point is to familiarize yourself with the various mentoring recommendations and resources listed on this page.
Core Themes in Effective Mentorship
Mentoring can be a highly rewarding experience…
As a mentor, you can play a critical role in a young investigator’s learning experience by increasing their understanding of how research works and the importance of evidence-based arguments, as well as by spurring feelings of interest and preparedness to continue in research (e.g., Lopatto, 2007). Beyond your project, the critical thinking and agency your mentee develops through research serves as an essential component of the mentee’s (as well as your own) training and professional development. Potential life-long impacts include enabling both mentees and mentors to more effectively approach, understand, and overcome obstacles (Altman, 2019), honing effective communication and management skills, and generally becoming more desirable candidates in a variety of careers (Finley, 2021).
…But it can also be difficult. These recommendations and resources might help.
The benefits to mentorship are numerous and motivating. However, it can also be challenging to know if you are doing your job as a mentor “well.” While there are many ways to serve as a mentor (and perhaps equally numerous recommendations for doing so effectively), there are several core themes that tend to arise in most mentorship guidelines. These emphasize the importance of:
Setting clear guidelines and expectations.
Establishing consistent and open communication.
Continually developing the mentor-mentee relationship.
Below you will find a high-level overview of these guidelines, including questions to help you brainstorm your own approach and tips for doing so effectively. Also available is an “RA Syllabus” template, which provides sample goals and schedules that you can incorporate, communicate to, and discuss with your mentee. You can find more extensive mentoring guides, and other external and Harvard-specific resources, under “Resources for Mentees” and “Resources for Mentors” (scroll down).
And remember: You are not alone – Connect with other mentors!
Regardless of your experience level, cultivating connections with fellow mentors will promote your own professional development and may lessen stress or workload. For instance, you may jointly develop materials, give each other feedback, and/or organize joint mentee activities/workshops. These fellow mentors might be faculty or peers in or outside your lab who are currently mentoring or have previously mentored undergraduate students, or some of the various resources listed below.
1. Set clear guidelines and expectations.
Set shared, realistic expectations for both parties at the beginning of the relationship. These expectations might pertain to the specific project as well as general mentor/mentee relationship, and should be grounded in your overall goals for the project as well as personal and professional development. These expectations should be discussed together in a meeting, and could be outlined in the form of a “contract” that you both sign, either as part of an RA syllabus or as a separate document.
Expectations should align with overall goals.
What are your long-term goals for this project (e.g., presentation, publication, etc.)?
What do you expect the mentee to contribute?
Which specific skills will the mentee gain as a result? These could range from scientific literacy and knowledge of a field, to technical skills, to professional development skills
What should they expect you to contribute as a mentor?
Expectations should factor in logistics.
How much time will the mentee work on the project each week?
What type of tasks will they complete each week?
How will you evaluate your mentee’s progress?
Tip: Be specific when describing project outcomes as well as your role
This clarifies how each person’s contributions align or assist with project goals as well as what type of support and guidance they will receive from you.
Tip: A detailed project plan will communicate how mentees will concretely make progress towards project goals
Providing insight into how you will evaluate and provide feedback attaches objective outcomes to each contribution.
2. Establish consistent and open communication.
While regular written correspondence is appropriate for quick check-ins, face-to-face meetings can promote deeper levels of mutual communication, understanding, trust, and respect that subsequently optimize both the mentor’s and mentee’s experience.
Establish the frequency of communication.
How often will you meet with your mentee?
How do you plan to communicate between meetings?
What should they do if they have questions or hit a roadblock?
Will you provide avenues for peer communication and consultation with other mentees?
Establish openness in communication.
How will the mentor and mentee provide mutual feedback? How often will this be done?
How should both members of the relationship handle feedback when agreed upon expectations are not met?
Tip: Create a plan for how problems can be identified and set the tone for how they can be addressed and resolved.
For instance, describing how you will address consistent gaps in performance vs. expectations in a fair and thoughtful manner will help lower barriers that your mentee faces when communicating any struggles they are experiencing. Likewise, inviting your mentee to provide ongoing feedback on your mentorship, and then welcoming that feedback and responding constructively, encourages your own development as a mentor.
Tip: Meet regularly to maintain prompt and efficient communication.
Meeting weekly is recommended as this promotes frequent and early question asking, as well as to resolve any confusion more efficiently. Your mentee should feel comfortable alerting you to an issue in advance via your agreed to communication method (e.g., email, slack, text, etc.) so that you can more effectively address it and problem-solve together during the next meeting.
3. Continually develop the mentor-mentee relationship.
An effective relationship between mentors and mentees is best achieved when that relationship is mutually beneficial. With this in mind, in addition to project specific goals, a good mentor will also aim to help their mentee attain their scholarly, personal, and professional goals.
Get to know your mentee and allow them to know you.
What are your mentee’s immediate and long term goals?
What is their preferred mentorship / learning style?
Why are they seeking out a research position?
What are their responsibilities and supports outside of the lab?
How do they like to spend their time?
How would you answer these same questions?
Provide scaffolding.
Whether it be related to project, personal, or professional goals, mentors should aim to provide resources and support to their mentees. Generating examples, holding meetings or workshops, or even sharing personal stories that demonstrate problem solving or navigating uncertainty are just some of the ways that mentors can help meet this expectation.
Tip: In the first meeting, familiarize yourself with your mentee’s interests and goals.
Demonstrate your interest in your mentee’s development and well-being by making a note of these and regularly asking about them. Likewise, sharing information about yourself allows your mentee to gain a sense of how you spend your time and respect for your obligations aside from being their mentor.
Tip: Familiarize yourself with and suggest other resources available to mentees.
In addition to these more explicit forms of scaffolding, mentors can provide support by proactively becoming aware of university resources that are available to the students (see below for a running list) as well as facilitating and encouraging connections (e.g., between peers as well as other professionals).
Resources for Mentors
Primarily targeted at faculty mentoring/advising graduate students, The Advising Project has a Canvas site (requires HarvardKey to log in) with several resources on good advising practices, including prompts and conversation starters to jump-start advising discussions.
Peer Coaching Initiative
A non-credit professional development opportunity made possible by a grant from the OEDIB's Culture Lab Innovation Fund. Participants practice the essentials of listening and coaching and earn a skills certificate, build a high-trust relationship with an effective talking partner (aka “peer coach”), and talk through challenges with an objective and sympathetic listener. Designed for Harvard Students who want to get to know peers across the university and develop their leadership and collaboration skills.
The Bok Center offers a multi-session seminar for graduate students titled “Mentoring: How to Advise (and be Advised)”. This will be offered in the Spring semester, but specific dates haven’t been announced yet.
On their website, they also offer general guidelines on:
Mentoring (includes some of the content covered in their mentoring workshop)
The Science Education Office offers mentoring workshops each semester (NOTE: Fall 2022 programming not announced yet): https://lifesciences.fas.harvard.edu/mentoring-workshops
They also have compiled their own Faculty Handbook for Mentoring Undergraduates in Life Sciences Research, and they list external guides and resources here.
HWP consultants work with faculty and teaching fellows to develop effective ways of assigning and responding to student writing, as well as to develop writing guides tailored to specific courses or disciplines.
Various Mentoring Guides and Resources (see links below)
The National Academies of Science, Education, and Medicine’s guide on “effective mentorship” provides evidence-based resources relevant to diverse disciplines and includes advice for both mentors and mentees.
The University of Minnesota offers a free online training module titled Optimizing the Practice of Mentoring.
The University of Michigan Rackham Graduate School provides several advising documents including:
Resources for Mentees
Familiarizing yourself with these resources and offering them to your mentee will go a long way in demonstrating proactive interest in your mentee’s personal, academic, and professional development.
Acts as a streamlined, one-stop-shop for various resources for undergraduates related to “academics, health and wellness, social and community connection, career advising, or help in an emergency”.
617-495-2042 (Mon-Fri 8AM-6PM ET)
617-495-5711 (evenings, nights and weekends)
Smith Campus Center, 75 Mt. Auburn St, 3W
Counseling and Mental Health Services (CAMHS) offers consultations, short-term counseling, medical prescribers, outside referrals, virtual workshops, and urgent care. For advice outside of 8AM-6PM ET, please call the advice nurse at 617-495-5711. If you are in crisis, please call 911.
academicresourcecenter@harvard.edu
1414 Massachusetts Avenue, floor 3R
The Academic Resource Center (ARC) provides many different resources to assist Harvard College and GSAS students succeed and thrive in and outside the classroom. They offer academic coaching and workshops, peer tutoring, and an English language conversion program, among others.
writingcenter@fas.harvard.edu
Barker Center basement
The Harvard College Writing Center offers help with general writing as well as specific written assignments. Undergraduates can meet individually with a tutor at any stage of the writing process (ideas, outlines, drafts, etc.) or review their writing resources online (including help with APA style).
617-495-2595
ocsrecep@fas.harvard.edu
54 Dunster Street
The Office of Career Services (OSC) assists students with career exploration, advising, internship and job searching, and the medical, graduate, or professional school application process. Their services are meant to supplement the advising that undergraduates receive from their House Tutors and academic department by providing additional resources and guidance.
617-495-5095
undergradresearch@fas.harvard.edu (for research advising)
fellowships@fas.harvard.edu (for fellowships advising)
77 Dunster Street
The Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships (URAF) provides information about available research and funding opportunities at Harvard and beyond. They also provide general mentoring-related guidelines for undergraduates interested in getting involved in research (regarding communicating with faculty, etc.). URAF hosts drop-in advising hours for Harvard College undergraduates from 2:00pm to 4:00pm, Monday to Friday during the academic term. Appointments can be scheduled using the contact information above.
Undergraduate Research Conferences (see links below)
In addition to presenting their work to you and your lab, your mentees will benefit from presenting their research at Harvard, regional, and/or national conferences.
Although most major societies and organizations consider scholarly submissions from researchers of all experience-level, there are undergraduate-specific conferences that may be of interest, such as the National Collegiate Research Conference (NCRC), hosted by Harvard College Undergraduate Research Association (HCURA). Additionally, the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) maintains a list of conferences for undergraduates in psychology and neuroscience.
Primarily targeted at faculty mentoring/advising graduate students, The Advising Project has a Canvas site (requires HarvardKey to log in) with several resources on good advising practices, including prompts and conversation starters to jump-start advising discussions.
NOTE: The materials in this site were compiled in 2022-2023. Please contact Constanza (Cony) Vidal Bustamante at cvidal@g.harvard.edu if you want to contribute your own materials to this living repository.