MinerAlert
MinerAlert
The Graduate School provides materials and support for program-based student recruitment, the professional development of graduate students and postdocs, and–more broadly–the promotion of graduate education. We offer a menu of training options for undergraduates considering graduate school, current graduate students, and postdocs.
The pamphlets below may be shared electronically or printed in their current form. Members of the UTEP community may email us to request printed copies, edits, or custom-made materials.
También se ofrecen información y apoyo en español.
The Graduate School recognizes the value of mentoring and recommends that graduate students and postdocs actively seek mentoring relationships with faculty members at UTEP and in their field at other institutions. Furthermore, we regard faculty mentoring of students and postdocs as part of a long-term strategy to ensure student success in accordance with UTEP’s vision of “Access and Excellence” in higher education. Different mentors may provide different types of assistance, so we recommend students and postdocs have multiple faculty members (as well as professionals outside the academy) to whom they can look for advice and guidance. Mentors should introduce young scholars to established people in the field, teach norms and best practices of the discipline, and work with mentees to create an Individual Development Plan.
The Graduate School and the Center for Faculty Leadership and Development recognize graduate faculty for excellence in the mentoring of graduate students and postdoctoral scholars at the annual Mentoring Reception. The event includes a panel discussion about mentoring. Click here for a list of Outstanding Thesis & Dissertation and Three Minute Thesis Competition winners and their mentors.
2017—Dr. Diane Doser, Professor of Geological Sciences
2016—Dr. Jorge Gardea-Torresdey, Professor of Chemistry
Dr. Samuel Brunk, Professor of History, recommends mentors allow their protégés to largely define the mentoring relationship based on their needs. He recommends mentors:
"This approach is a very individualized one, better for some disciplines than others," Sam adds; "It it can only work if there is a programmatic safety net for students who may not seek help when they need it."
Dr. Fernanda Wagstaff, Associate Professor of Management, discussed meta-analytic results of current research on mentoring relationships. Drawing from supported hypotheses, she centered her discussion on four topics: protégés, mentors, mentoring relationships, and the management of mentoring programs.
These robust findings, says Fernanda, have important implications for practice at the individual/dyadic level (i.e., mentors / mentees), at the programmatic level (e.g., our PhD program), and at the organizational level (i.e., Graduate School and UTEP). At the individual level, protégés should strive to be proactive, emotionally intelligent, and focused on learning. On the other hand, faculty members should take mentoring seriously—not just because it's the right thing to do—but because mentoring contributes to both protégé and mentor success. At the programmatic level, we should continue securing opportunities to develop a variety of skills, strategies, and techniques in our students, including proactivity, emotional intelligence, and learning goal orientation. Finally, the University should continue providing institutional support focused on fomenting a culture of mentoring. This annual mentoring award and reception signals the relevance of mentoring relationships for UTEP.
"Mentoring," she concludes, "improves both our UTEP community and the community of El Paso by tapping into one of the two pillars of our institution: Excellence."
As Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Materials at Extremes Research Group (MERG), Dr. Calvin Stewart mentors a team of undergraduate and graduate researchers. He recommends mentors:
The links below provide information and resources on a number of topics related to the mentoring. Importantly, The UTEP Center for Faculty Leadership and Development facilitates professional development activities related to mentoring, so check their schedule often. (CFLD also has information about mentoring for faculty members , which is especially important for early-career scholars.) The National Postdoctoral Association provides a Toolkit on Mentoring , which includes articles, mentoring plan templates, and other resources for protégés and their mentors. In order to access these valuable resources, graduate students, faculty, staff, and postdocs can apply for Affiliate membership by clicking here and using their UTEP email address.
*As a benefit of institutional membership, online access to all CGS publications is provided to students, faculty, and staff at member institutions. To create a new user account for publications access, complete this form .
