In the fall of 2015 I took the Research Mentor Training Seminar offered through the Delta program at UW-Madison. The seminar consisted of weekly discussions about mentoring that loosely followed the Entering Mentoring guide. I found the discussions on promoting professional development, cultivating self efficacy, and talking about research ethics to be particularly enlightening. While there is often a culture of using undergraduate researchers for grunt work, ensuring that each student builds their lab skills and develops independence ends up being a larger long term benefit to research projects. Discussions in seminar led me to make my 2 page research contract for undergraduate researchers, and it has been very helpful.
The semester I was enrolled in the seminar, I was concurrently mentoring 2 undergraduates and one first year graduate student who was deciding if she wanted to join my PIs lab, and I often felt overwhelmed by the amount of projects and people I needed to supervise. It was very helpful for me to have the seminar community to discuss problems we had in common and to get different views on how to handle difficult situations. It allowed me to step back and see the benefits of having all of these students working with me.
I would highly recommend a similar seminar to anyone interested in increasing their skills as a research mentor and educator.