flowchart LR
MENTEE["<b>Mentee-Specific Skills</b><br/>Acquiring mentors<br/>Learning quickly<br/>Showing initiative<br/>Following through<br/>Managing the relationship"]
SHARED["<b>Shared Core Skills</b><br/>Listening actively<br/>Building trust<br/>Encouraging<br/>Identifying goals and current reality"]
MENTOR["<b>Mentor-Specific Skills</b><br/>Instructing / developing capabilities<br/>Inspiring<br/>Providing corrective feedback<br/>Managing risks<br/>Opening doors"]
MENTEE --- SHARED --- MENTOR
classDef core stroke-width:2px;
class SHARED core;
8 Inclusive Mentoring and Mentee Development
Mentoring is not a side activity at RIPLRT — it is part of the mission. Inclusive workforce development is the final link in our scientific through-line, and mentee co-authorship and growth are documented evidence that we deliver on it. This chapter is our mentoring compact.
8.1 What inclusive mentoring means here
Inclusive mentoring means we mentor for the mentee’s trajectory, not only for the project’s output; we recruit and support members with attention to who has historically been excluded from STEM; and we make sure inclusion shows up in our practices, not just our branding.
We recruit and develop members for more than grades or technical skill. We look for and cultivate curiosity, reliability, kindness, willingness to collaborate, a growth mindset, and independent thinking. GPA alone has never built a good scientist.
8.2 The Mentoring Skills Model
We treat mentoring as a set of learnable skills, not a personality trait — some shared by everyone in a mentoring relationship, some specific to each side of it. We adapt this from the Mentoring Skills Model (authored by Linda Phillips-Jones, PhD), which sorts the skills into three regions.
Source: https://my.lerner.udel.edu/wp-content/uploads/Skills_for_Sucessful_Mentoring.pdf
As Figure 8.1 shows, the three regions map directly onto how our group works:
- Shared core skills — listening actively, building trust, encouraging, and identifying goals and current reality — are the foundation we expect from everyone, in every direction: PI to trainee, peer to peer, alumni fellow to current student, and collaborator to collaborator.
- Mentee-specific skills — acquiring mentors, learning quickly, showing initiative, following through, and managing the relationship — are what we actively coach trainees to build. They map onto the development ladder later in this chapter and onto your IDP.
- Mentor-specific skills — instructing and developing capabilities, inspiring, providing corrective feedback, managing risks, and opening doors — are what mentors grow into. In our group, these are not the PI’s job alone: senior mentees, Graduate Research Alumni Fellows, Postdoctoral Collaborating Mentees and Fellows, and Faculty Collaborators all carry mentor-specific responsibilities (Chapter 7).
TipUse the model in your IDP
At each IDP check-in, name one shared-core skill, one role-specific skill, and one concrete way you will practice each this term. Mentors do the same for their mentor-specific skills. Mentoring is a practice we improve on purpose — not something we assume we already have.
Because the group is built around Inclusive Workforce Development, most members sit on both sides of this model at once: a graduate student is a mentee to the PI, or faculty collaborators, and a mentor to an undergraduate; a postdoctoral fellow both receives and provides mentorship. The model is a shared language for getting better at both roles — not a hierarchy.
8.3 The mentoring compact
Mentors commit to:
- Meet regularly with mentees (see cadence below) and come prepared.
- Co-create an Individual Development Plan (IDP) and revisit it each semester.
- Give honest, kind, timely feedback — and receive it too.
- Map every mentee to a real, credited deliverable.
- Be the first line of support for helping mentees understand and follow this manual.
- Advocate for mentees’ growth, visibility, and next steps.
- Practice cultural humility and make space for mentees to bring their whole selves.
Mentees commit to:
- Take ownership of their development and the IDP.
- Communicate early about obstacles, confusion, or capacity.
- Learn in public — ask questions, surface mistakes, and try.
- Help mentor those who come after them.
- Follow integrity, data-governance, and authorship rules without exception.
8.4 Meeting cadence
| Touchpoint | Frequency | Tool |
|---|---|---|
| One-on-one mentoring meeting | Biweekly (min. monthly) | One-on-One Meeting Template |
| IDP review | Each semester | Individual Development Plan Template |
| Pod check-in | Weekly | Weekly Meeting Agenda Template |
| Climate / belonging pulse | Quarterly | Chapter 21 |
8.5 The student-development pathway
Mentees grow along a deliberate ladder. The goal is increasing independence and leadership, not just task volume.
flowchart LR
A[Onboard<br/>learn tools, ethics,<br/>one defined task] --> B[Contribute<br/>own a deliverable:<br/>figure, codebook,<br/>lit-synthesis]
B --> C[Lead a component<br/>analysis, writing,<br/>dashboard within a pod]
C --> D[Co-author & present<br/>abstract, poster,<br/>manuscript section]
D --> E[Mentor & lead<br/>project lead, mentor<br/>junior members]
8.5.1 Training milestones
- Foundation: complete CITI/IRB training as applicable; learn the group’s tools (Git/GitHub, R or Python, the data-governance rules, among others); read this manual.
- Contribution: independently own a named deliverable (a figure, a codebook, a literature synthesis, a reproducible notebook).
- Leadership: lead a pod component; mentor a newer member; first- or co-first-author a scholarly product.
8.7 Tiered, scalable mentoring
No single person can one-on-one mentor a portfolio this large. We use the tiered pod structure (Chapter 7): senior mentees mentor junior mentees under PI oversight. This both protects bandwidth and gives senior mentees real leadership training. Mentoring others is itself a development milestone.
TipMentoring is reciprocal and developmental
Good mentoring is not the senior person doing the junior person’s thinking. It is structured support that transfers capability. When in doubt, ask: “Did this interaction make my mentee more able to do this independently next time?”
8.8 Sponsorship vs. mentorship
Mentoring helps people grow; sponsorship uses your standing to open doors for them — nominating them for awards, recommending them for opportunities, putting their name forward when they’re not in the room. RIPLRT mentors are expected to sponsor, not just mentor, as members become ready. Track sponsorship moments in the IDP so they don’t get lost.