Mentoring Resources for Mentees
How to Use These Resources
Research shows that positive mentor-mentee relationships benefit graduate student success and well-being. Graduate students also benefit from multiple mentors and should create a mentorship network to guide them during graduate school. Rather than seeking comprehensive mentorship from one sole mentor, graduate students should create a collective of mentors to guide them on their various needs and goals. Resources for creating positive mentor relationships can be found below.
- Choosing a Mentor
- What to Ask in a Ph.D. Advisor Guide
This comprehensive guide from Columbia University catalogs questions you can ask before choosing a faculty mentor or research group.
Questions to Ask When Choosing a Graduate Advisor
This blog post by two ecologists details questions to ask a potential mentor or research group.
Conducting Successful Lab Rotations
If your program includes a rotations component and you will be rotating for 1-3 terms with various faculty, this comprehensive guide from UCSF will help you navigate your rotations so that you can find the right research group for you. - Setting Expectations
- Questionnaire for Aligning Expectations in Research Mentoring Relationships
Managing expectations between mentors and mentees can be challenging and is a common source of conflict in mentoring relationships. This tool has been designed as a discussion starter for use by research mentors and student mentees. The goal of using this questionnaire is to provide a framework for a fruitful discussion about each person’s expectations, and how to decide on appropriate ongoing actions as the relationship develops.
Advice for the New Mentee: A tool to help you establish a relationship with your mentor and improve communication
A tool from Duke University on topics to discuss when setting expectations with your mentor.
Mentorship Agreement Template
A sample template for a simple mentorship agreement to outline expectations between a mentor and mentee, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. - Career and Professional Development
- Individual Development Plan
Complete an IDP exercise with your mentor to formulate goals and timelines that best meet your professional and career development needs.
Guidelines for Facilitating Publication of Graduate Student Work
UC Davis guidelines regarding authorship and publication.
Career Management Resources
GradPathways, Counseling Services, and the Internship and Career Center provide workshops, one-on-one advising, and other resources to assist with career exploration, finding positions, and forming networks. - Conflict Management
- Graduate Studies Problems and Dispute Resolution
Graduate Studies is here to help you navigate and overcome obstacles to your academic success.
Office of the Ombuds
The UC Davis Ombuds Office is a confidential, independent, impartial, and informal problem-solving and conflict management resource for all members of the UC Davis and UC Davis Health campus communities.
We Have to Talk: A Step-By-Step Checklist for Difficult Conversations
A checklist by Judy Ringer on how to prepare and carry out a difficult conversation.
Conflict Styles Assessment: Do you know your conflict style? Are you a competer, proble solver, compromiser, avoider, or accommodator? This assessment from the US Institute of Peace helps mentors identify how they respond to conflict and how to be more aware of the implications of each style. - Programs and Workshops
- GradPathways
GradPathways offers many workshops that relate to mentoring relationships, communication, self-assessment, project management, etc.
Graduate and Professional Student Mentorship Program
Organized by the Cross Cultural Center, this 2-quarter long program pairs a faculty mentor with a graduate student. Through faculty mentorship and other programming, this program holistically supports its graduate and professional student participants as they navigate the rigors of graduate school. Contact the Cross Cultural Center for more information. - Tools
- Individual Development Plan (IDP)
Creating an Individual Development Plan or IDP allows graduate students and postdoctoral scholars to set professional development and career planning goals and take the steps necessary to complete them.
Mentor Assessment
This tool developed by Naledi Saul at UCSF helps you assess your mentor and find areas that need additional support.
5:15 Tool
What's a 5:15 update? It's a 1:1 meeting that should take a student roughly 15 minutes to prepare, and 5 minutes for the mentor to read prior to the meeting, a helpful management tool designed to facilitate communication, goal-setting, and progress tracking. - Building Your Mentorship Network
- Mentorship Network Workbook
A guidebook to help you build your own mentorship network, created by UC Davis graduate student Jasmin Green as part of her PFTF project.
Mentorship Network Map
This map template developed with the NIH clarifies all the different types of mentorship as you bring intentionality to building your own mentorship network. - Further Reading
- Mentee Responsibilities - UC Davis Graduate Council Mentoring Guidelines
Graduate Council recognizes that the mentoring of graduate students by faculty is an integral part of the graduate experience for both. The responsibilities of the faculty mentor are broad and diverse. They include, but are not limited to serving as a role model, advising a student as to course work requirements, and providing formal instruction in a given discipline as well as helping students identify and achieve their individual short and long-term educational goals.
Great Mentoring in Graduate School: A Quick Start Guide for Protégés
A guide from the Council of Graduate Schools on creating positive mentor relationships and networks.
Graduate Student Mentoring Guide: A Guide for Students
A guide from Rackham Graduate School of University of Michigan on setting up a successul relationship with your mentor.
Rethinking Mentoring
This article provides an overview of mentoring, mentoring structures, benefits, and how to set up a successful relationship.
“Mentoring Up: Learning to Manage Your Mentoring Relationships”
Mentoring expert Steve Lee wrote this book chapter with colleagues Rick McGee, Chris Pfund, and Janet Branchaw to equip and encourage mentees to be pro-active in their mentoring relationships.
Book Chapter: Beyond “Finding Good Mentors” to “Building and Cultivating Your Mentoring Team”
The same set of colleagues (McGee, Lee, Pfund, Branchaw) wrote this book chapter, which touches on mentoring up also, in the book “Advancing Postdoc Women Guidebook” by the National Postdoc Association.