This document provides guidance for mentoring underrepresented students. It emphasizes that mentors should build trust with their mentees by regularly meeting, providing honest feedback, and sticking to their commitments. Mentors should also be aware of potential barriers like time constraints or cultural differences that could undermine the relationship. Ultimately, an effective mentor serves as both the strongest advocate and harshest critic for their mentee by nurturing their self-worth while still challenging them to improve.

1. Strongest Advocate Strongest Critic
A Guide to Mentoring Underrepresented Students
"We can help a person to be himself by our own willingness to steep ourselves temporarily in his
world, in his private feelings and experiences. By our affirmation of the person as he is, we give him
support and strength to take the next step in his own growth." Clark Moustakas
If you’ve been inspired to try mentoring yourself, here is a guide to help you along the way!
Mentoring is an elusive concept that can be difficult to define because it is a unique experience for each mentor‐
mentee pair. A general definition for mentoring is that it is a dynamic process in which a mentor and mentee each
learns to respect and trust the other’s commitment, expertise, and individuality, and are willing to invest time and
energy to build a unique, positive and productive relationship.
Why become a mentor?
Mentoring requires an unwavering commitment of both time and effort. So why should you take on the task of
becoming a mentor? First and foremost, in addition to contributing to the success of the upcoming generation, there
is much personal satisfaction to be gained from the knowledge that you contributed to another person’s success. By
mentoring underrepresented trainees, you are contributing to the diversity of your discipline by developing future
leaders within that discipline. You will also experience personal growth as you develop your own coaching, feedback
and leadership skills.
What about underrepresented students?
Sometimes the barriers to success for underrepresented students are not obvious and it can be difficult to know how
to help the student. It is important to recognize those barriers which can include academic and cultural isolation, lack
of motivation and self‐esteem, unsupportive peers, friends and family, real or perceived discrimination, stereotype
threat where students fulfill the self‐defeating prophecy and low expectations that can lead to low performance, and
the inability of some students to acknowledge and accept that there may be a problem because they feel ashamed
about “where they come from”. Excellent communications skills, particularly listening skills, by you are essential for
you to understand the attitudes and values of your mentee and to see and accept the mentee’s belief system.
How can mentoring help students?
Mentoring can be a great benefit to students by helping them develop personal and professional competencies (such
as communications and networking skills), removing institutional barriers, providing access to informal networks and
information, avoiding and/or decreasing alienation, improving retention and increasing diversity in the academic
disciplines. Mentoring should also foster academic and social integration, nurture creativity, establish a monitoring
and advisement standard, and build lifelong coping skills.
Meetings – share personal information
Starting a mentoring relationship with a student can be difficult and/or awkward. The first few meetings should be
used to build the foundation for the mentor/mentee relationship. It is important that you take the initiative to
schedule the first meeting to immediately let the student know that they are important and you want to serve as a
mentor. It is helpful for the initial meeting if you send a brief professional bio blurb to the student and ask for the
same in return. This provides a springboard for the initial conversation and could lead to the sharing of some
personal information about career path/choice and overcoming roadblocks. By sharing this information with the
student, you are setting the tone of the relationship and giving permission to the student to share their information.
Establish trust
It is essential to begin to establish trust immediately and so an explicit discussion about confidentiality should be
woven into the first conversation. A brief discussion about the expectations and goals for the mentor‐mentee
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2. relationship should also begin in this initial meeting. Before the meeting is over, the next meeting should be
scheduled for sometime within the next couple of weeks. Again, it is important that the message to the mentee is
that they are important and that you are taking the relationship seriously.
Individual Development Plan – set goals
The second meeting should clear up any questions/concerns left from the first meeting followed by an informal
discussion along the lines of an Individual Development Plan. This gives the mentee an opportunity to articulate their
long‐, intermediate and short‐term career goals and their training and educational needs to reach these goals. An
informal skills (professional and technical) assessment should be done at some point (more than likely at a
subsequent meeting) to discover the gaps in the mentee’s portfolio and identify strategies, including a timeline, to
close the gaps. The final two items for discussion at the second meeting should be one about a time‐frame for
evaluating the mentoring relationship to ensure that it is a positive and productive relationship, and one about future
interactions.
Regular contact
It is important to have regular and frequent contact with your mentee. These do not all have to be formal or in‐
person meetings. Emails can greatly facilitate the relationship. But face‐to‐face contact is essential and they can be as
brief and informal as a quick “hello, how are you” interaction at a seminar or passing in the hallway. But there should
be regularly scheduled formal in‐person meetings.
Stick to your commitments
Face‐to‐face meetings help to build trust, one of the most important ingredients for a successful mentor‐mentee
relationship. Following through on scheduled meetings and other commitments are also essential for building trust.
Another essential ingredient for trust‐building is caring and honest feedback. It is important to provide positive
feedback; this should not be confused with unwarranted praise and flattery. Providing negative feedback is just as
important but constructive criticism should always be accompanied by constructive advice. Such feedback will
provide a framework for learning for the mentee.
Be mindful of barriers
There are many pitfalls that can derail a mentor‐mentee relationship and awareness of and attention to them can
help avoid them. Among the many obstacles are time constraints, lack of expertise, over‐dependence of the mentee,
subconsciously imposing your values and perceptions on the mentee because of a lack of understanding/appreciation
of cultural differences, attitudes and behaviors, and the inability to establish trust in the relationship. Other barriers
that can lead to ineffective mentoring include just providing the solutions rather than working together to identify
solutions and thus teaching the mentee about problem solving, regularly neglecting commitments to the mentee,
assuming too much responsibility for the mentee’s success in comparison to the mentee’s responsibility and
accountability, and having unrealistic expectations of the mentee.
What makes a good mentor?
An effective mentor nurtures and fosters positive self‐perception and self‐worth in the mentee, helps them accept
and cope with their “baggage” by creating an atmosphere that gives the mentee “permission” to share feelings and
aspirations, to express concerns and to identify problems associated with issues that are seen and unseen. The
effective mentor listens well, is able to observe keenly and is skilled in communications to realize the mentee’s
perspective by knowing when and how to ask appropriate probing questions. Such a mentor helps the mentee find
linkages and teaches them to navigate their environment by sharing their own strategies and coping mechanisms. A
strong mentor is committed to the success of their mentee and challenges, motivates, inspires and encourages self‐
reflection. The communication between them is open and confidential and the relationship is built on trust.
A mentor should be a mentee’s strongest advocate and at the same time their strongest critic
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