The document discusses the mentoring process in gerontology research at the University of Alabama, focusing on student development and their participation in the Southeastern Student Mentoring Conference. It outlines steps for students to select topics, conduct research, and present their findings, emphasizing the importance of critical reflection and effective communication. The document also highlights various research presentations from the past, showcasing the diverse topics explored by students.

1. Taking the First Step:
Mentoring Students in Gerontology
Research
Daniel W. Durkin and Victoria Adams
Department of Social Work and The School of Allied Health and Life Sciences

2. Agenda
• History – nothing I do is original
• Student Mentoring Conference
• “The Process”
• Emerge Project
• Presentations over the years
• Victoria’s experience

5. Mentoring Culture
Always be
mentored and
always be
mentoring.

6. UA Center for Mental
Health and Aging
• Interdisciplinary research center
• Mostly psychology and social
work
• Also nursing, medical, business
• Weekly meetings with a
statistician on-hand
• 1st year project

7. Southeastern Student Mentoring
Conference in Gerontology and
Geriatrics
• Started in 1989
• I have attended all but 2 since 2003
• “Seeks to provide students with
practical scholarly experiences
associated with academic and
applied gerontology”
• “Vehicle for students to gain
experience presenting their
research and to network with key
professionals in aging”

8. Southeastern Student Mentoring
Conference in Gerontology and
Geriatrics
• Promotes student professional
development
• Acknowledges important student
work in the fields of gerontology
and geriatrics
• Supports faculty/student
mentoring

9. The Process
• The student picks an aging-related topic (e.g. mild
cognitive impairment, LGBT aging, recovery after
stroke).
• The student does a preliminary search of the
literature to begin to identify research gaps.
• The student meets with me to discuss the topic and
narrow it down to a more specific research focus
that addresses a gap in the literature. We work
together to develop some preliminary research
questions.
• We search for publicly available databases that
could be used to examine our research questions
(e.g. NIH data stored with the Interuniversity
Consortium for Political and Social Research, Centers
for Disease Control data).
• We decide on a database, download the data and
organize it to meet our needs. This includes the
identification of variables and data transformation, if
necessary (e.g. calculating sum scores, recoding to
categorical variables).

10. The Process
• We refine the research questions and determine the
appropriate analyses to answer the research questions.
• Since I do not expect the student to have experience with
statistics, I run the analyses with the student present. I
explain what I’m doing and why and we discuss the process
so the student has a basic understanding of what the tests
mean and how to interpret the results.
• We work together to interpret the results and identify
research, practice and policy implications.
• Once the above process is complete, an abstract is crafted
and submitted for acceptance.
• If the abstract is accepted, the student and I work together
to create a poster presentation and an oral presentation
for the conference.
• Finally, the student and I attend the conference and the
student presents his/her work.
• Student completes the formal critical reflection component.

11. Critical Reflection
Critical Reflection Learning Goal:
Create a professional poster presentation using criteria from Hess’ “Creating Effective
Poster Presentations” and analyze which characteristics and strategies support effective
communication in different settings and with different audiences.
Identify Explain Apply Analyze Synthesize Evaluate
Identifies
Explains
principles of
principles of
effective
effective
presentations
presentations
as a result of
so that others
reflection on
can
the
understand.
experience.
Considers how
principles of
effective
presentations
emerged in
your
experience at
the Student
Mentoring
Conference.
Compares and
contrasts your
initial and later
understandings
of effective
presentations.
Develops steps
necessary to
use principles
of effective
presentations
for other
conferences.
Evaluate
principles of
effective
presentations
in terms of
impact on
different
audiences.

12. DEAL Model
• Describe your poster presentation and oral
presentation experience at the Student
Mentoring Conference.
• Explain: How effective were you in
conveying your central message in both
poster and oral presentation?
• Articulate Learning: What problems or
challenges did you encounter in creating your
poster and oral presentations? Was there
anything you feel was important that you had

13. High Impact Practices
• Faculty/Student Research
• Faculty guided systematic investigation
and research experiences including
presentation of findings.
• Collaborative Assignments and
Projects
• Learning activities that combine two key
goals: learning to work and solve
problems in the company of others, and
sharpening one’s own understanding by
listening seriously to the insights of
others including team-based activities,
cooperative projects and research.

14. Program Goals
• Critical Thinking: Analyze and
interpret the qualitative and
quantitative data related to
evidence-based social work
practice.
• Communication: Report findings
from social work research and
literature.
• Project Management: Effectively
utilize research strategies to
examine issues in social work

15. Presentations Over the
Years
• Subjective and objective measures of income: Which
is the better predictor of caregiver outcomes?
• Growing old behind bars: A qualitative review of the
aging male prisoner.
• Goodness of fit of a stress and coping model with
White, African American and Hispanic/Latino
caregivers of person’s with Alzheimer’s disease and
related dementias.
• The influence of exercise upon subjective health,
anxiety and depression among Alzheimer’s caregivers.
• Exemplary caregiving as a mediator of the effects of
daily care bother on caregiver emotional outcomes.
• Whom do nursing home residents prefer to talk to
about their satisfaction with care?: Implications for
improving quality of care.

19. Last Year
• Heather Mutchie - Comparison of MMSE
and ACTIVE methods for the identification
of MCI.
• Dannette Wallace - Subjective mental
health among LGB Latino and Asian
American adults: A comparison between
older and younger adults.
• Victoria Adams - Quality of life among
stroke patients in the Russian Federation.