What is the difference between an advisor and a mentor? Can I serve as both?

• An advisor has an official role in guiding an advisee through degree requirements. It is a formal role overseen by the university, and a relationship with a advisee has a concrete beginning and end.
• A mentor is invested in the academic and professional success and fulfillment of their mentee and their relationship exists for an indefinite amount of time.
• Yes – and ideally, all advisors should be mentors.

I already have a lot of work to do. How can I balance my responsibilities and commitments as a mentor with the demands I already have?

• You are not meant to be the only support system for a mentee.
• Encourage and hold your mentees accountable for creating a network of mentors.
• Consider using already established opportunities to check in with your mentee and review and refine mutual expectations (e.g., mid-year or mid-program reviews or the student progress report.)
• Be proactive. Address challenges and concerns as they arise. That will prevent future and more complex issues.

How can I foster a welcoming and non-judgmental space where my mentee can share their concerns, thoughts, and show up as their whole selves?

• Spatial considerations
  • Meet with your mentee at a table, not your desk, to dismantle power dynamics and encourage honest dialogue (Roland, 2020).
  • Consider integrating personal artifacts, as you deem appropriate and as you feel comfortable, into your office space to foster comfort for your mentee to show up as their full self.
• Demonstrate academic vulnerability, to the extent in which you feel comfortable.
  • Share your own scientist identity and the challenges you face as a faculty member.
  • Share your failures and how you learned from them.
  • Acknowledge the difficulty of the academy and publishing, and normalize them for your mentee. For example, you can show a mentee a “CV of failure” (developed by Princeton professor, Johannes Haushofer PhD), which shows that successful faculty members experience academic and professional rejection regularly and can foster a conversation about learning from failure.
• Adopt a relational communication approach (Hinz et al., 2022).
  • Be present during a conversation, listening rather than formulating a response while a mentee shares.
  • Remain aware of power dynamics, cultural differences, and your assumptions about the academy, learning, and a mentee.