Bite-sized Mentoring Plan for Undergraduates
Arif-
I learnt and observed [that] undergraduates are more inclined to think about their progression term by term [so] a more relevant and realistic approach [is] to set a goal...and clearly lay out a weekly plan for the term. [I]t is helpful to discuss early in the term the student's courseload [and] other factors (e.g., employment or family obligations) ... that are relevant to developing their specific plan. [Considering these] ... you can set the objective or plan with them.
In the academic ecosystem, we learn from each other. Our role as mentor or mentee is dynamic. Most often, we play dual roles in parallel. When a department hires new faculty, they assign faculty mentors to ensure the new person's success. Similarly, faculty provide training to postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduate researchers. In this ecosystem, undergraduate students typically are down the priority list, and their success stories are less highlighted compared to graduate students and postdocs. Unfortunately, undergraduate students will often spend their time in the lab assisting with mindless chores, plating, preparing media, counting cells, and other sorts of labor-intensive tasks. These day-to-day lab tasks are an important and initial part of undergraduate training, but if these are the only tasks they do over and over, term after term, it is a clear problem that clearly doesn't provide an enriched or inspiring environment. Sadly, I have noticed this culture across labs suggesting that most undergraduate mentors do not have mentoring plans for their undergraduates.
Over the years, as a graduate student, postdoc, and now, as an Assistant Professor, I have mentored more than 15 undergraduate students. During this process, I learnt and observed several key points. For instance, undergraduates are more inclined to think about their progression term by term. Therefore, a more relevant and realistic approach would be to set a goal (or goals) for the undergraduate, and clearly lay out a weekly plan for the term, being sure to consider, e.g., Spring break and final exams week. On top of that, it is helpful to discuss early in the term the student's courseload, how challenging the courses are, as well as other factors (e.g., employment or family obligations) they might have that are relevant to developing their specific plan. Depending on their courseload, and additional obligations, you can set the objective or plan with them.
If you are already convinced about this term-based undergraduate mentoring plan, you will find the next point logical. An undergraduate does not want to repeat a course they took last semester; however, when working or interning in a research lab, it is almost impossible to avoid some repetitive tasks or experiments. Try to introduce some new experiments and learning opportunities every term. This way, every time they come back to the lab for a new term, they will learn a new technique and see their progress in the lab. Adding new techniques or experiments every term will also help them grow and adapt to difficult research questions and engage more fully in the research endeavor. Like the step-by-step progression over terms in lab work, it is also important to introduce them to other academic events, such as journal club, lab meeting, seminars, conferences, and social events- all separate from bench work.
Anything and everything I mentioned as an undergraduate mentoring plan in the earlier section, I implemented with one of my recent undergraduate mentees, Erika Norris (Biology major at the University of Massachusetts Amherst). Erika started working with me in the Spring of 2022 as a freshman student. In the first term, I assigned her some very simple experiments: prepare soil and pots, grow some control and mutant corn, use leaf samples to prepare slides, and use a light microscope to take images of these slides (Image 1).
Next semester (Fall 2022), Erika came back to the lab after the summer. This time, I told her: “Did you remember, last semester you used some mutant corn plants and observed some cells under a microscope. There is another way to detect these mutants: by PCR genotyping.” I showed Erika how to collect samples, isolate genomic DNA, set up a PCR reaction, and perform gel electrophoresis. She consistently did it each week over the term and analyzed more than 100 samples, several hundred PCR reactions, and dozens of gels, and she completed everything before ther final exam week. At the end of the semester, Erika was saying that: “Oh, it is over. I was really enjoying doing my routine PCR!” Later I came to know that her friends called her “Corn Queen”, because she grows and works with corn plants (Image 1). Also, that term I was giving a departmental seminar, and I invited her to join because I would present some of her data.
By this point, Erika had such good experience with phenotyping, PCR genotyping, and light microscopy. I wanted to take her to the next level and introduce her to the confocal microscope. It is easier for an undergraduate to work on Arabidopsis than corn when they first start confocal microscopy. So, in the Spring of 2023, I introduced Erika to the model plant Arabidopsis. She grew some control and mutant plants side by side every week, stained them, and imaged them with a confocal microscope to see roots and stomata (Image 2). This term, Erika was also taking a course (Writing in Biology) that I taught. She started to combine her enthusiasm and skills from lab work and her courses. She applied for several fellowships and started to be awarded one after another, including a summer fellowship (Image 2). Very recently, she presented her first scientific poster based on her work as a summer undergraduate fellow.
I always Tweet about the work and progress of my undergraduate mentees, including Erika. Often time, I get questions from friends and colleagues about my mentoring plan. I call my approach a “bite-sized mentoring plan”. In my opinion, it makes sure that the mentor is not putting too much at once onto an undergraduate mentee, and from the mentees’ perspective, it is accomplishable. This mentoring plan works well for undergraduate students and currently, I am implementing the same mentoring strategy in my new lab at Howard University (Image 3).
