Mentor & Mentee Development
FAIM Learning Opportunities
Inclusive mentoring relationships require an individualized approach where a mentor considers the mentee as a whole person: their identities, cultural backgrounds, interests, goals, strengths, and areas for development. Research has shown that faculty interactions with students in the classroom, laboratory, and advising meetings influence student sense of belonging, professional socialization, academic performance, and persistence within graduate education, which helps demonstrate the benefits of inclusive and equity-minded mentoring practices. In this workshop, faculty will reflect on their current advising and mentoring practices and learn strategies to develop and sustain more inclusive and equity-minded mentoring relationships with their graduate students.
This workshop will also introduce faculty to the FAIM (Faculty Advancing Inclusive Mentoring) Resource Center, which provides a framework to support faculty in their development and advancement of inclusive and equity-minded mentoring practices. The FAIM framework is comprised of an inclusive mentoring philosophy, key principles, and practical tools and resources intended to be adapted and adopted to meet the contextual needs of mentors and mentees.
In this workshop, graduate students will reflect on their mentoring experiences and needs, learn to co-construct and manage mutual expectations within their mentoring relationships, and develop strategies to establish a network of mentors to get the mentoring they need and want across multiple domains. This workshop will also introduce mentees to the FAIM (Faculty Advancing Inclusive Mentoring) Resource Center, which provides a framework to support the development and advancement of inclusive and equity-minded mentoring practices within graduate and postdoctoral education. The FAIM framework is comprised of an inclusive mentoring philosophy, key principles, and practical tools and resources intended to be adapted and adopted to meet the contextual needs of mentors and mentees.
My Voice, My Story workshops pair video monologues – constructed from the experiences of real graduate students – with facilitated discussions. The primary objective of My Voice, My Story is to utilize the power of narrative to achieve a greater understanding of the depth and breadth of the lived experiences of graduate and professional students. Through stories and discussion, participants explore the many types of experiences within graduate education that frequently go untold, and learn and share strategies on how to create more inclusive and supportive research and mentoring environments.
One-on-one FAIM Consultations
The Graduate School offers FAIM Individual Consultations to support Cornell faculty members, especially early career faculty, as they navigate mentoring relationships and dynamics within graduate education. Complimentarily, the Provost’s Office of Faculty Development offers individual consultations to support faculty members as they navigate mentoring relationships within the professoriate.
To schedule a FAIM Introductory Workshop or a FAIM Consultation on mentoring within graduate education, contact our team at FAIM@cornell.edu.
Additional Internal Learning Opportunities
- Cornell MAC Public Keynote on Mentoring within the Academy
Equity-Minded Mentorship – Why and How Identity Matters
Speaker: Dr. Kimberly Griffin, Dean of the College of Education and Professor of Higher Education, University of MarylandWhile we know mentoring relationships are powerful interventions and a key strategy for promoting equity in the academy, we also know that these relationships often fall short of fulfilling their potential, particularly for early career colleagues with marginalized and minoritized identities. We will talk about what gets in our way of leveraging the power of
mentorship to close equity gaps in the academy, and I will offer a framework for thinking about identity in the context of our relationships. We will also talk about promising practices and strategies that can enhance our ability to form mentoring relationships grounded in equity, affirmation, and care.
- Cornell Building Allyship Initiative
- Graduate School Advising Guides for Faculty and Students
- Cornell Practical Steps for Supporting Addressing Inequities & Supporting Belonging
- Cornell Resources for Faculty Supporting Graduate Student Diversity, Inclusion, and Well-being
External Learning Opportunities
- Equity in Graduate Education National Resource Center advances equity in graduate education by conducting and translating research that is inspired by community needs, and offering high-quality, evidence-based professional development that provides faculty and administrators with tools and resources to create and sustain institutional change.
- NCFDD supports the researchers with courses, community-learning, networking, and mentoring opportunities, amongst myriad other resources. NCFDD promotes strategic planning, explosive productivity, work-life balance, and healthy relationships with peers, mentors, and mentees.
- National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) serves as a national hub for several online mentor training courses including synchronous online sessions and self-paced asynchronous sessions.
- Unconscious Bias Course
- Launching Research Pt. 1: Laboratory Readiness
- Launching Research Pt. 2: Tools For Investigation and Organization
- Mentoring Undergraduate Students
- The University of Minnesota’s Optimizing the Practice of Mentoring offers asynchronous online self-paced research mentor training. Content is organized into five modules that cover mentoring models, mentor roles and responsibilities, structure and dynamics of the mentoring relationship, and strategies for facilitating, and addressing challenges to, the mentoring process.
- Optimizing the Practice of Mentoring 101: For Research Mentors of Graduate Students, Fellows, and Early-Career Faculty
- Optimizing the Practice of Mentoring 102: For Research Mentors of Undergraduate Students
- Enhancing Motivation Using the CARES Mentoring Model
- Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER) is focused on improving the research mentoring relationships for mentees and mentors at all career stages through the development, implementation and study of evidence-based and culturally-responsive interventions.