Northeastern REU Graduate Student Mentors

Prepare a learning/research plan for your mentee(s).

Reach out to your mentees well in advance. Consider setting up a meeting in person. You should provide the students with some background reading material for them to look at before the beginning of the program. It is strongly recommended that you include some exercises/examples for the students to work out.

During the program, you are expected to meet with your mentees frequently and be available in some form on a more regular basis for small questions and clarifications they may have. You may find that at the beginning of the program, it is best to talk with them much more frequently, so they can get past the background material and move on to more independent things like examples and computations.

Overview:

• Over the course of 2 months you will work closely on a project of your choosing with undergraduate students. The project should culminate in a short research or expository paper, and an oral presentation. Students will write their report using Overleaf.

Expectations:

• Provide structure and an overview for your project; give your student a bird’s eye view of what you want to accomplish over the 2 months.

  • You can use feedback from your students to help you find a suitable project.

• Meet in-person frequently with your student(s).

• Be available to answer questions between meetings.

• Provide feedback on written report.

• Coach your student(s) in their oral presentations.

Between and During your meetings:

• Between meetings, give your student concrete objectives. (e.g. Read this part of Paper A or Chapter B, and come up with 5 examples of object C; write section X of your report.)

• During meetings:

  • Get students to present material back to you.

  • Review written work.

  • Answer student questions (more importantly) .

Immediate Action Items:

• Make an Overleaf account (if you haven’t already).

• Meet with your undergraduate students.

• Develop for yourself an overview of your project.

  • Make a list of 5 learning objectives.

  • Make a rough outline of what should go in your students’ report.

If you have questions or concerns, reach out to the postdoc organizers Dr. Silversmith and Dr. Walters

northeastern [dot] summer [dot] math [at] gmail [dot] com: