Managing Mentoring Dilemmas Sept. 20 @ 10-11:15 a.m. CASE, Room E422 Being a "good mentor" often requires seemingly opposite expectations. How do I encourage my mentees' independence while still giving them enough support to succeed? How do I maintain boundaries for a productive professional, yet personal, relationship? How do I provide critical feedback and advice without crushing my mentees' spirits? This session is dedicated to recognizing the many dilemmas we face as mentors and best practices for managing those dilemmas during our conversations with mentees.
Mentoring as Intercultural CommunicationOct. 11 @ 10-11:15 a.m. Regent Administrative Center, Room 302 Mentorship is increasingly occurring among individuals (mentors and mentees) from diverse cultural backgrounds. This can contribute to different access to knowledge about the norms of 'US academia culture' among mentees and different preferences for communication and relationships among mentors and mentees. This session addresses these, and other, issues related to mentoring in intercultural contexts and provides some recommendations for more culturally sensitive mentoring communication techniques.
Mentoring Session for BIPOC Mentors Nov. 8 @ 10-11:15 a.m. Regent Administrative Center, Room 302 Attendance in this session is restricted to mentors who identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) or more broadly as 'people of color'. This will be a discussion-based session where mentors can discuss specific mentoring challenges that are connected to race and other intersecting identities in the academy. Goals of the session are to share and problem-solve around mentoring challenges in a supportive environment.
Mentoring and Allyship Dec. 13 @ 10-11:15 a.m. Regent Administrative Center, Room 302 This session overtly discusses the role mentorship can play in addressing structural inequities in the academy linked to race, gender, sexuality, ability, and other intersecting identities. The session focuses on how mentors can use aspects of their privilege - connected to identities and/or institutional roles - in ways that support mentees from underrepresented backgrounds that are often marginalized in the academy. Session focuses on understanding specific ways that 'inequality' shapes everyday experiences of mentees from diverse backgrounds, identifying concrete strategies for productive allyship, and addressing some of the challenges and pitfalls of allyship.