Mentoring Matters

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we interview one of our own teaching mentors, Dr. Jan Wiersema of Iowa State University. We explore how using type indicators (sometimes called personality assessments) like Myers Briggs can help faculty understand their students on a deeper level, allowing them to tailor a mentoring approach to better connect with the student. Dr. Jan has a background in K-12 and...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Season 2! We are excited to be back after our summer hiatus. In this episode we discuss 10 phrases we find useful to have in your pocket when mentoring graduate students. Among others, we talk about the importance of seeking to understand why certain actions may or may not have occurred. For actionable tips and strategies for mentoring please check out The Graduate Ment...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we cover our top ten tips for things we wish we'd known when we started mentoring graduate students. Have a listen to learn why our number one tip was to keep your mouth shut! Our tips cover the things we've learned in the trenches during a collective 21 years of graduate student mentoring. You might be surprised to learn many of our tips are about our pe...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Mentoring Matters we discuss how to help your graduate students plan for the end. Of their graduate program that is. We cover things we've done (or wish we had done) to help graduate students plan for and execute an excellent final thesis and even discuss some tips for preparing for the defense. 1) Starting in their penultimate semester, work with the stude...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Mentoring Matters we share our tips for helping graduate students become awesome oral communicators. Don't forget to give them opportunity to practice! Provide low stress opportunities to present such as giving presentations to your lab group. Have discussions about core concepts of effective communication.   Always consider the audience, build from their k...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we discuss one of our favorite subjects, how to build community within your graduate student team.  Things we talk about include: Setting expectations from day one to help students understand the importance of teamwork Creating group challenges with fun rewards to drive productivity and team building Praising teamwork when it happens My Life in a Paper Bag team lea...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we tackle a topic that can strike fear in the heart of even the best mentor—how to develop students into strong technical writers. In this episode we discuss tips for making the writing process manageable: Get them started early Break writing up into small sections  Ask them to develop an outline for each section before they start writing it then meet and have the...

Send us Fan Mail Clear communication is key to success when working with graduate students. Articulating expectations at the start will pay dividends in the long run!  In this episode we discuss how to: 1. Clearly communicate what you expect from your students, begin this during the interview. They should know what they are getting into...  2. Consider using a mutual expectations document to ensur...

Send us Fan Mail In the inaugural episode of Mentoring Matters we talk about the one mentoring strategy that has had the single biggest impact on our graduate programs. We are Steph and Mary, best friends and professors in animal science who have spent years trying out ways to become better graduate student mentors. We've made the mistakes, so you don't have to! In this episode we discus...