Mentoring can enhance the student experience and increase their persistence in engineering. In this session, the importance of mentoring, strategies for finding mentors, and successful formal/informal programs will be discussed. A focus on networking will discuss how to approach potential mentors and form a mentoring relationship across personal, academic, and career transitions. The session will also highlight the benefits of being a mentor during graduate school and how graduate students are in a unique position to share their experiences with undergraduates. This session will be led by graduate students who have participated and benefited from formal and informal mentoring programs.

1. Finding and Being a
Mentor in Grad School
Katharine B. Gamble, Ph.D.
ASE, UT-Austin
Katharine.Gamble@swe.org
Stephanie Gillespie
PhD Student, ECE, Georgia-Tech
sgillespie6@gatech.edu

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Mentoring
Our experiences
Importance of mentors
Mentor-mentee relationships
Tips for finding a mentor
Tips for being a mentor

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The Graduate Student Community
will provide graduate students the
resources they need to excel and
graduate with their advanced
degrees in order to successfully
transition into their desired career
by:
• Developing unique webinars,
and regional and national
conference sessions tailored to
the needs of graduate students.
• Writing blog posts providing
thoughts, insights, and links to
current events as they might
influence the lives of graduate
students.
• Contributing general references
to things necessary for
successfully navigating grad
school.
• Twitter:
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https://swegrad.wordpress.com/
• Email list serve – joining
instructions on the blog!
• LinkedIn: Coming Soon!
Mission | What the Graduate Community Offers
QR goes to Blog

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Our Mentoring Experience
Mentor:
• Graduates Linked with Undergraduates
in Engineering (GLUE)
• Texas Spacecraft Lab
• Grad SWE (at UT-Austin, regional, and
national)
Mentee:
• Internships
• Informal relationship with professors,
advisors, etc.
• Conference contacts
Katharine Stephanie
Mentor:
• Opportunity Research Scholars
• Vertically Integrated Project Team
• Grad SWE (at GT)
• Region D Conference Planning
Committee
Mentee:
• Internships
• Informal relationship with professors,
advisors, etc.
• Conference contacts

5. Why do you think it’s important to have a
mentor?

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The Importance of Mentoring

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The Importance of Mentoring (2)

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The Importance of Mentoring (3)
“Mentoring can facilitate positive socialization among women
to STEM fields by encouraging interaction with successful
individuals and by providing [career] support... Coupled with
other programmatic initiatives, mentoring relationships are a key
element in encouraging retention and success of women in
STEM fields.” 1
"It was hard without having female mentors in the field. It would
have helped to have someone to talk with about issues. Male
mentors are helpful with career advice ...but it does not feel like
they truly understand the burdens that women face...in such a
male-dominated field as engineering.” 2

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The Importance of Mentoring (4)
Women with sponsors are more likely to ask for stretch
assignments and pay raises3
Women who are mentored and sponsored report
having more career success, greater job satisfaction
and more career commitment4
Sponsors are different from mentors5
• Sponsor- invested in your success and willing to offer guidance
and critical feedback because they believe in them, with more
at stake for both partners
• Mentor- offer advice and support, and expect very little in
return

10. What does a mentor do for you?

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Mentors should…
• Help you solidify your career goals
• Guide you through coursework options
• Advocate for you
• Encourage you to find internships, research opportunities
• Assist you with “soft skills” (time management, adjusting to university, finding your place, etc.)
• Connect you with internships, lab openings, etc.
Undergrads
• Help you find your “fit”
• Assist you in the transition to graduate school
• Support you through life changes
• Encourage you to integrate work and life
• Help you solidify your career goals
• Share knowledge about their experiences
• Provide you with general knowledge about your career path
• Help you find funding
• Connect you with professionals in your field
Grads
• Support you through life changes
• Provide constructive and support feedback
• Demystify departmental, college and university culture
• Advocate for you
• Provide information about promotion and tenure processes
• Help foster important connections and visibility
• Assist with grant writing, etc.
Faculty

12. What types of mentor-mentee relationships are
there?

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Types of Mentor Relationships
Faculty-Student
Faculty-Faculty
Student-Student

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Student to Student Mentoring
Mentoring relationships can develop through
• Formal peer advising programs
• Personal connections
• Classes, homework groups, teaching assistantships
The primary goal is to
• Help students navigate college life and courses
• Enable students to achieve their educational goals
• Share common experiences between students to improve social
wellness and mental health

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Student to Student Mentoring (2)
How to
• Look for existing programs through your department or college and
use the resources of your department/college/school (email lists and
facilities)
• Connect students with similar and dissimilar experiences (both older
and younger)
• Strive to develop a one-on-one relationship through informal
communication and personal meetings
• Talk about difficulties faced in making decisions, tackling certain
situations, etc.
• Focus on achieving educational goals

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Student to Student Mentoring (3)
Benefits
• Helps new students adapt to the new learning environment more
quickly
• Provides a good combination of support and encouragement in an
informal setting
• Guides students to expand their learning and participation in
education and developmental opportunities
• Goes well with faculty advising
• Often happens without knowing it’s going on!

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Faculty to Student Mentoring
Mentoring relationships can develop through
• Department or college mixers
• Classes, projects and labs
• Formal mentoring programs
The primary goal is to
• Create a focused academic community for women
• Improve retention in engineering programs
• Give engineering women additional departmental resources beyond
their professors and advisers

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Faculty to Student Mentoring (2)
How to
• Remember: Everyone is busy!
• Consider the difference between networking and match making
• Take advantage of your department/university/school and its
resources (scheduling tools, facilities, email lists, funds)
• Assess your goal to determine your structure
• Have a purpose (outreach, recruitment, games and fitness,
community service)
• Have a mutual goal for faculty and students
• Reshape your approach as your community grows and matures

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Faculty to Student Mentoring (3)
Benefits
• Provides undergraduate and graduate students with strong faculty
role models
• Eases academic transitions
• Enables effective academic advising
• Facilitates discussion of aligning academic and professional career
goals
• Mentoring for graduate students is “near-peer”

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Faculty to Faculty Mentoring
Mentoring relationships can develop through
• Formal and informal programs
• Connections outside the department or university
The primary goal is to
• Help female faculty achieve promotion and tenure
• Retain female engineering faculty
• Improve teaching and enhance career satisfaction

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Faculty to Faculty Mentoring (2)
How to
• Use existing programs in your department/college/university
• Use the resources of your department or college to establish
connections with faculty outside your department (funds for travel,
etc.)
• Time is precious: use your mentor only for questions you cannot find
the answer to yourself
• Seek multiple mentors to address different needs
• Be proactive to interact with your mentor

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Faculty to Faculty Mentoring (3)
Benefits
• Young faculty receive direction for their activities that benefit their
careers while senior faculty receive enhanced career satisfaction
• Collaborative efforts are improved within departments and to other
units internal and external to the university
• Mentor and protégé receive positive benefits from engaging in
mentoring activities during faculty reviews

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Mentoring in School
Useful for understanding the “way-out”, giving back,
and building your network
Look for
• Formal programs through your department or SWE section
• Chances to meet people through research programs or
specialized academies
Remember to consider social vs. professional
comments and your boundaries

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Mentoring in Academia
Useful for understanding the tenure process and
department culture or expectations
Often there are formal programs for junior faculty, or you
can seek out those at your institution or others with your
desired experiences
Remember that it is a small network and word travels.
Some questions will be better suited for some mentors than
others

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Mentoring in Industry
Useful for understanding a specific company, job
position, or navigating the workplace
Can form from:
• Alumni partnerships and programs
• Internship/co-ops
• Other tech-association social events
You may with to avoid using specific names when
criticizing or addressing something troublesome

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Mentoring in SWE
Useful for professional development and
leadership growth
Local section-, region-, and society-level mentors
• Look to see what exists
• If it doesn’t exist, are you willing to start it?
• Who will you meet at We15?
Understand what you want to get out of the
relationship before you start

27. Ok, so how do you go about finding a mentor?

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Strategies for Finding a Mentor
Take a critical self-appraisal
• What are my academic and professional objectives?
• What type of training do I desire?
• What are my strengths? What skills do I need to develop?
• What engages me?
Identify potential mentors
• Formal and informal programs
• Social activities and mixers
Avoid limiting your options
• Don’t expect one mentor to meet all your needs. Be creative!

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Tips for Finding a Mentor
No one mentoring system meets all needs
No one mentor meets all needs
Mentoring is easiest in a culture of trust and collaboration
Remember time is valuable
Build mentoring relationships through personal connections
and shared experiences
Many resources exist for mentoring…find them and use
them!

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Resources for Finding a Mentor
To help you find a mentor, or at least start the search, check out the following
resources:
http://mentornet.net/ -- You can have an industry, gov't or academic mentor. These
are for undergrads, grad students (MS or PhD), post docs and early faculty (not yet
tenured).
http://www.awis.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=37 -- This is a
mentoring handbook written by the Association of Women in Science (AWIS). AWIS
also offers mentoring programs usually at the local chapter level that are geared
toward PhD level women grad students in STEM. They also have had some great
webinars about how to find mentors and what type of mentors you need.
http://www.fabfems.org/ -- This website is part of the Million Women Mentors effort
out of the White House to engage mentors in STEM. This site also has mentoring
resources at http://www.fabfems.org/resources. For all who sign up, they can tell
their STEM story and indicate how they want to be a mentor (just listed online so
people can read about them, open to contacts via email if kids have questions,
etc.). You can also find mentors and role models here!
https://www.millionwomenmentors.org/#home
If people want to be a role model or mentor, Techbridge also has great resources at
http://techbridgegirls.org/index.php?id=29.
The ADVANCE program also has a compilation of mentoring resources that may be
useful now or as graduates head into faculty positions:
http://www.portal.advance.vt.edu/index.php/tags/Mentoring.

31. Have you participated in any formal/informal
mentor programs?
What did you think of these programs?

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Structured vs Unstructured Programs
Structured programs take the
pressure off junior women from
having to ask the difficult “are
you my mentor?” question 6
Some faculty may feel more
secure asking for help when a
senior faculty member has
invited them to ask 7
Structured Unstructured
Nobody…can advance without
good informal networks
because of the fact that if
people don’t like you, there
are a hundred thousand
ways they can screw you. 8
Informal mentoring…consists of
two people who are
compatible and get together
to share ideas and learn from
each other. 9

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Tips for Being a Mentor
Understand what the mentee wants out of the relationship
and focus on that aspect
Reach out if you haven’t heard from your mentee in an
agreed upon period of time
Give both positive and negative feedback- their goal is to
grow, but they also need positive reinforcement
Consider referring them to other resources when they are
out of your area of expertise
Remember that you can be getting something out of the
relationship as well

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Tips for Being a Mentor
Understand what the mentee wants out of the relationship
and focus on that aspect
Reach out if you haven’t heard from your mentee in an
agreed upon period of time
Give both positive and negative feedback- their goal is to
grow, but they also need positive reinforcement
Consider referring them to other resources when they are
out of your area of expertise
Remember that you can be getting something out of the
relationship as well

35. Contact us
Katharine B. Gamble, Ph.D.
ASE, UT-Austin
Katharine.Gamble@swe.org
Stephanie Gillespie
PhD Student, ECE, Georgia-Tech
sgillespie6@gatech.edu

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SWE Graduate Student WE15 Events
Hosted by Grad Community:
Thursday Sessions
Graduate School Members Meeting –
10:15-11:30am, MCC 110
Finding and Being a Mentor in Grad School –
10:15-11:45am, MCC 107B
Friday Sessions
Graduate Rapid Fire Session 1 –
10:00-11:15am, MCC 107A
US Graduate School Experience for International Students –
4-5pm, MCC 202
Graduate Student Meet & Greet –
5:30-6:30pm, MCC 110
Saturday Sessions
Graduate Rapid Fire Session 2 –
10:00-11:15am, MCC 105B
Engineering Careers in Gov’t & Policy –
1:30-2:30pm, MCC 202
Women in Academia Overview & Networking (not hosted by
Grad Community)
2-4pm, Renaissance, Ryman
Watch our Social Media to
join us for lunch, coffee, and
sitting together at Celebrate
SWE!
• Twitter:
https://twitter.com/SWE_grad
• Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/SW
EGrad
• Blog:
https://swegrad.wordpress.com/
• Email list serve – joining
instructions on the blog!
• LinkedIn: Coming Soon!
QR goes to Blog

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Let’s Practice: Elevator Pitch to Approach a Mentor
Are you ready to ask someone you meet at We15 to be
your mentor?
Let’s practice. Don’t forget your:
• Name
• Position/School/SWE affiliation
• What are your aspirations
• What do you hope to get from this contact as your
specific mentor?
• How often would you like to meet and through which
type of setting (email, in person, over lunch, etc.)