I help lead a Vertically Integrated Projects program with Prof. Steven Finkelstein at the University of Texas at Austin. In this style program, we mentor a group of 10-17 undergraduates and assist them in developing and executing their own independent research projects over the course of 5 semesters.
In the first semester (an incoming student's Sophomore spring), we give a crash course in Python programming for astronomy, building both photometry and spectroscopy skills and techniques. Simultaneously, this new class of 5-7 students work together on a group project to get exposure to working with real data. In the second semester (Junior Fall), students read papers and develop proposals for their independent research projects. For the remaining three semesters, the students work on completing their individual projects, with the end goal of producing a AAS Research Notes, or in some cases, an Astrophysical Journal article.
In this program I run the majority of the day-to-day operations, lead a small group of graduate students in serving as mentors to the undergraduate researchers, and work one on one with the undergraduate researchers both on their research projects and their career goals. Over the past two years, I have mentored ~20 students, with many going on to pursue a Ph.D in Astronomy.