Be a Mentor

Be a Mentor

Mentoring undergraduate students can be very fulfilling, both personally and professionally. The resources on this pages can help you become a successful mentor of an undergraduate scholar in a research and/or creative projects.

If you have additional resources you would like us to add, please email us at oscar@gmu.edu.

Mentoring Undergraduates

  • Research Mentor Training from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wisconsin Center for Education Research. This online tutorial, aimed at supporting beginning undergraduate and graduate researchers, grew out of their excellent handbook, Entering Mentoring (pdf link), that was originally targeted at faculty working with graduate students for the first time.  Both are excellent.

  • The University at Buffalo's Center for Undergraduate Research & Creative Activities includes great tips on working with students and designing projects.

  • Developing an Institutional Framework for Supporting Supervisors of Research Students: a practical guide was written by Ireland's National Academy for Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (NAIRTL) to help guide graduate mentors, but the charts to help outline Student and Supervisor role, responsibilities, and expectations (pg 24) and other tools are useful for working with undergrads.  We have a paper copy in OSCAR.

  • This Handbook on Mentoring Undergraduate Research offers strategies for faculty from multiple disciplines to successfully deepen student engagement and advance their professional, academic, and personal development. In addition, authors are available to offer consultations upon request on implementation of mentoring activities in diverse disciplines.

  • Nature's Guide for Mentors (Lee, Dennis, and Campbell, 2007) gives great, first-person advice for working with students at all levels and understanding your own style.

  • The Council on Undergraduate Research has updated their handy guide, How to Mentor Undergraduate Researchers (Temple, Sibley, and Orr, 2010). We have copies available in the office for faculty who would like one of their own.

  • Jones, Rebecca M., Mentoring Undergraduates in Scholarly Activity, poster presented at the Innovative Teaching and Learning Conference at George Mason University, September 21, 2012.  Click the picture below to download a PDF.