Impact of mentorship in the STEM community

Most of the time, students are confused on how to choose track in their educational and professional careers. Failing subject courses, procrastination in doing research, and taking another degree happen when students perceive themselves as to have taken the wrong track in their career. The transition between being a student to being a researcher is crucial and needs to be discussed with their adviser, colleagues, friends, family and mentors –the trusted persons of the student. In the book of Adviser, Teacher, Role Model, Friend –On Being a Mentor to Students in Science and Engineering, importance of good mentoring is emphasized as a key factor into producing exceptional professionals in the field of science and engineering. This consensus study was authored by National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, Policy and Global Affairs, and Public Policy Committee on Science, Engineering. This guide aims to provide tips to improve mentoring, detailed examples of poor and good mentoring, and discussion on the context of mentoring to the extent of any field beyond science and engineering.

My experiences in doing research as a student and as a research assistant have accentuated the need for good mentorship, it is foundational and a continuous process. The guide suggests mentoring should be relational and professional between a student and a mentor. It also presents the work of a mentor as a faculty adviser, career adviser, skills consultant and role model.

The significance of a mentor rests with being personal and being professional as an adviser. Often mistakenly, students regard their adviser as their mentor too, which can either be possible or not. An adviser concerns only the profile of the student in terms of progress in research and academic standing. Their meetings would only revolve in asking questions on their research topic and probing for the next steps. A mentor extends its concern to an aspiration of having the students experience optimized learning in the institute and develop relational skills that are beneficial upon employment into research, academe or non-academe. Being a mentor entails skills in listening, observing, and problem-solving. A mentor establishes a relationship with the student built upon mutual respect, trust, understanding, and empathy. These elements of being a mentor are maintained throughout the educational and professional career of the student with the boundaries of keeping intact the fitting blend of being personal and professional in the relationship.

In my experience from my undergraduate years, I was not aware of the difference between a research adviser and a mentor. It was coincidental that my research adviser turned to be my mentor too. Aside from our appointed research meetings, we were able to discuss urgent situations in short time notice. One-on-one meetings also helped me be at ease in understanding the nature of research I wanted to pursue for my thesis. I was asked and given time to decide what particular field in Physics I would want to work on for my undergraduate thesis. The various learning platforms provided for me such as research group discussions, internship, and presenting my research on conferences boost my confidence and structured me a network in my field of research. And as I enter graduate school, constant communication and moral support are still being given to me by my undergraduate research adviser —an illustration of the key points I have read in the book.

A solid foundation in the onset of the career of the students must be identified by the students themselves. The commitment of the mentor in imparting knowledge and experience must be met by the student’s sense of responsibility. A mentor is not supposed to cradle the student to a point of overindulging and lacking of accountability. The mentor should envision a line of generational scientists and engineers from the students who will be mentors too. Good mentoring would involve passing the baton; the job is not just to craft good students but more so to produce good mentors too. Mentorship also cultivates a community that is not restricted of the different fields of science and engineering. A mentor will be willing to ask another mentor on a topic beyond his/her knowledge for the good of the student’s research career.

Universities accommodate diverse students from undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students. In some laboratories and large research groups, the diversity of the students are used to impart knowledge with their colleagues and juniors. Seniors give advices to the ones starting their research career. This serves as their training as they become a research adviser too when they pursue a career in academe. It will also come in handy when they choose to work in the industry as this will develop their communicational skills. With this kind of scheme, the head of the laboratory or the adviser of the research group can build up the potential of each of the students as they progress in their educational and professional careers.

One of the most common difficulties in building a successful mentoring relationship is the lack of time and communication. A mentor must be quick to identify what seems wrong in the performance of the student and address it appropriately. Some problems are often the not dismissed when it seems to not affect the output being received by the mentor. As long as the student is able to give an output or results in his/her research, this seems fine not until the poor process reflects on the quality of work. The weekly progress report was an enormous burden added to my academic loads when I was in the peak of my undergraduate years. My mindset was to choose working on my academic load and thoughtlessly drop the things I have to do for my research or vice-versa. This was addressed by my research adviser. She pointed out to me that even though I have different tasks in both, my academic and research loads aim to develop my aptitude on thinking critically, sense of responsibility, and commitment in producing a quality work. How I manage my time between studying for an exam and reading a journal could have been perceived by my research adviser as trivial and something that would not factor in my deliverables. But, with some questions on how I come up with my outputs and observations in our research meetings, she was able to recognize my practice as something that would be a problem in the future.

In the book, it was mentioned that mentoring graduate students or even junior faculty should not be far different from the way how undergraduate students are being guided. Pursuing graduate school right after getting a bachelor’s degree may give the impression that the student is already equipped with the competences from his/her previous mentorship, especially when this transition happens in the same environment. On the contrary, a new stage in one’s career will pose a different level of difficulty; this is the reason why mentorship is a continuous process.

There were times when people would ask questions relating to pursuing graduate studies when I can have a stable and flourishing career in the industry. Some people could not understand why mastery of courses and gaining research experience in the academe is as significant as climbing the corporate ladder in the industry. Some would even consider graduate studies as a setback in one’s career. I consider these as reasons why only a few pursue a career in research or academe in our country. Valid enough that a postgraduate degree holder may have a short while disadvantage when he/she decides to work in the industry after the long years in research laboratories. But, the trainings and experiences that have molded him/her in doing research will soon catch up.

Mentorship as a whole is not only regarded as the list of advices conveyed by a mentor to a student. Communication is not limited to the words spoken but more so on the actions seen by the student in his/her mentor. These factors will translate more in the understanding of the student on what a being mentor is and how he/she can do the same thing to his/her future students. In the few years that I have been part of the science community, I’ve learned that science marches forward because there are people who dedicate their time and effort to learn and discover things that are still unknown. If we’re willing, onward science can be our reality.