Mentoring is something that I enjoy greatly and find to be one of the most important components of a students' success in academics and life. As such, I have focused my time and energy on a couple different areas of mentoring.
Mentoring to Reduce Inequity in Education
Mentoring to Prepare Students for Teaching
Mentoring to Prepare Students for Research
One of the mentoring areas that I focus a lot of time and energy on is trying to reduce inequity in academia. My main focus here has been on increasing the diversity of students applying to graduate school. I have been involved with several programs aimed at helping prepare students, specifically those from under represented groups, for applying and succeeding in graduate programs:
Founder of Increasing Neurodiversity in Graduate Education, a program at Landmark College (a college solely serving neurodivergent students with learning differences) to educate students about the what graduate school is, why one would pursue further education, and the process of applying to graduate school. The aim of this program is to increase the number of neurodivergent students in graduate programs.
Learning Strategist for Preparing Undergraduates for Graduate School, at University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), in which I helped students with strategies for taking the GRE.
Graduate Student Mentor for Access Grads, a UCSB program designed to connect graduate and undergraduate students to make the process of applying to graduate school less mysterious.
Graduate Student Mentor for Women In Science and Engineering, a UCSB program designed to connect graduate and undergraduate students who identify as women in STEM programs to build support networks
Another area of mentoring that I am passionate about it helping prepare individuals, particularly graduate students, to teach their own courses. As an expert in learning, I believe it is my responsibility to try to ensure that the strategies I study are used by a wide range of instructors. I have been involved in several different programs that aim to provide graduate students with the tools and skills to be effective teachers:
Instructor for Summer Teaching Institute for Associates, a certificate program aimed at preparing graduate students to be instructor of record during summer term.
Teaching Assistant Pedagogical Advisor in Instructional Development, in which I provided one-on-one consultations with graduate student instructors to discuss their course and ways they can improve their teaching and workshops that graduate students could attend to learn more about different components of teaching.
Graduate Coordinator for Certificate in College and University Teaching Program, a program designed to prepare graduate students to teach at a university level.
Lastly, an area of mentoring that I take seriously is mentoring students, specifically in research, to prepare them for their future either in graduate education or in a career. Research is an important part of the academic world, and I believe it is the responsibility of current researchers to educate the next group of researchers. I have been involved in several different positions that have allowed me to mentor students in developing their research knowledge:
Mentor to Undergraduate Researcher at Landmark College, I mentored 3 undergraduate students in their first ever research projects. These projects involved learning how to conduct literature reviews, about the importance of pilot testing experiments, and how to collect participant data. This is an on-going project, but has already resulted in one student-led poster presentation of the results at a regional professional conference.
Mentor to Undergraduate Researchers at UCSB, I mentored about 15 undergraduate students in conducting research, from the start of a project through the end of the project. This has included mentoring students in taking the lead on poster presentations for work they helped collect data for as well as mentoring students through a scoping review project, in which they will be involved as co-authors.
Mentor to Graduates Students at UCSB, I mentored 3 graduate students in developing their own research and building research plans. As a senior graduate student, I guided my mentees in the process of their own research as well as worked with them to develop joint research projects.