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Cornell University

Faculty Advancing Inclusive Mentoring

A Collaboration of the Graduate School and the Provost's Office of Faculty Development & Diversity

Advancing a Mission & Values Driven System

Academic programs, departments, and research groups are systems comprised of many elements. Using synergistic language and structure, everything within these systems should intentionally and transparently connect.

This helps to substantiate what you “care about” and why and should be made apparent in your practices, policies, and procedures.

Defining and creating understanding of your program, department, or research group’s mission and core values can help you engage in value-driven decisions and actions including your mentoring practices.

The tools on this page can support the development of a clear department / program mission statement as well as identify core values in order to advance a mission and values driven local system.

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This template rubric can help you assess the state of development of your department/program from the stage of considering a mission statement to having highly developed mission statement across several key areas:

  • clarity of purpose
  • identification of scope and stakeholders
  • acts of service and contributions to access and equal opportunity, community engagement, and inclusion in graduate education
  • alignment with core values and missions across the department, field, research group(s), university, etc.

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Purpose

This worksheet can help you identify your core values, or the ways of thinking and being that you hold most important. It can also help you explore how to practice living your core values through decision-making and actions in academic and professional relational environments, such as within a research team or a one-to-one mentor/mentee relationship.

Instructions

Step 1

Review the comprehensive, but not exhaustive, list of values in this resource.

Step 2

Identify and circle up to 10 values that resonate most with you.

Step 3

Reflect upon the 10 core values you identified and select the 5 values most important to you. Next, select the 2 core values that are essential to who you are and underlie your actions.

Step 4

After you identify your 2 core values, complete this worksheet to capture:

  • How do you already, or aspire, to demonstrate your core values within your professional and academic relationships?
  • What tendencies do you have that may be misaligned with your values?
  • What circumstance might make it difficult to act in accordance to your values (e.g., times of stress, conflict, etc.)?
Step 5

Identify a few tactics to realign your decisions with your core values.