Encouraging

I had a mentor who encouraged me to pursue my goals and dreams

Mentorship is one of the most powerful experiences a student can have in college. According to Gallup research, graduates who had a mentor encouraging their goals and dreams are 1.7 times more likely to thrive in all areas of well-being after college and 1.9 times more likely to be engaged at work, but only 25% of college alumni strongly agree that they had a mentor who encouraged them to pursue their goals and dreams. Challenges that come with mentorship – time constraints, relationship building, mentor-mentee alignment, clear communication, and space reflection – are all addressed in the strategies below.

Ultimately, mentoring is not just about guidance—it is about cultivating trust, promoting resilience, and empowering students to envision and achieve their goals. This section offers faculty practices that help create mentoring moments in both structured and informal ways.

Actionable Strategy How to Implement It Resources/Examples
Assessing student and faculty needs for mentorship. Use assessment tools to identify mentoring goals, preferences, and needs. Assessment tools can include mentor aptitude questionnaires and other assessment tools for mentees. Assessments provide a clear understanding of what mentees and mentors are looking for, which informs later stages.

Surveys/Questionnaires:

Mentee Self Assessment – 14 statements that describe key characteristics and actions that foster effective mentee-mentor relationships and support career development in the clinical and translational research workforce. The self-assessment evaluates mentees’ perception of how well they demonstrate these key characteristics and actions in practice.

Online Mentoring – 31 statements to assess quality and effectiveness of online mentoring relationships.

College Student Mentoring Scale (CSMS) – 25-item survey designed to measure students’ perceptions of mentoring support they receive during college.

The Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM – Table 6.1 lists all validated tools for assessing mentorship relationships based on career stage and discipline.

Assessment tools for mentees

High5 Test – Personal strengths assessment tool that includes 100 statements.

The Good Project Value Sort – The assessment displays 35 cards with values on them to help you determine your core values.

Personal Definition of Success – This is a facilitator’s guide from Harvard University to help mentees define success from a values-based perspective.

General Resources

5 Step Guide for Effective Mentoring Programs – ​A comprehensive resource designed to help organizations establish impactful mentoring initiatives.

4 Steps to Effective Mentoring – This blog post offers a practical roadmap for mentors aiming to build meaningful, results-driven relationships. It emphasizes that effective mentoring is grounded in intentionality, structure, and mutual growth.​.

Skills for Successful Mentoring – This guide offers a comprehensive framework for cultivating effective mentoring relationships. Drawing from extensive research, the guide identifies specific, observable skills that both mentors and mentees can develop to enhance their partnerships.

 

Actionable Strategy How to Implement It Resources/Examples
Mentoring Resources

Provide tailored resources for in-class mentoring, research mentoring, and self-assessment activities.

This provides practical tools that mentors and mentees can use throughout their relationship.
Tools for relationship initiation and building Offer specific tools and strategies to establish the mentoring relationship. Strategies can include icebreakers, scheduling tools, and goal-setting templates.  These can help define mentor-mentee roles and expectations, strong relationship foundation.
  • Icebreaker mentoring questions – This blog post emphasizes the importance of initiating meaningful conversations in mentor-mentee relationships through icebreaker questions; and provides examples of icebreaker questions categorized into 3 areas (Getting to know each other, Professional insights, and Reflective/Thoughtful questions).
  • 50+ Mentorship Program Questions for Mentors and Mentees – This blog post emphasizes the critical role of well-crafted questions in fostering effective mentoring relationships; and outlines 6 types of questions to guide these interactions (Icebreaker, Goal-setting, Career Development, Skill Enhancement, Feedback-oriented, and Reflective). This post also goes over the 5 stages of mentoring relationships and suggests pertinent questions for each phase as well as practical tips for asking questions.
  • 73 Mentorship Questions to Ask Your Mentor or Mentee – This post serves as a practical toolkit and mindset guide for developing meaningful, productive mentoring relationships including a comprehensive list of questions designed to enhance the mentor-mentee relationship. This site has various additional resources.
  • Questions to Ask Your Mentor and Mentee – This post provides tips on asking effective questions in a mentoring sessions, providing both questions to ask your mentees and questions to ask your mentor.
  • 20 Questions to Ask a Mentor About Career Development – This post highlights the importance of mentorship in professional growth. It provides a curated list of questions designed to help mentees gain valuable insights from their mentors regarding career development (Clarifying Career Goals, Skills Development, Networking and Professional Relationships, Work-Life Balance, Mentorship Dynamics).
  • Comprehensive list of different categories of  personal “Get to know me questions”
  • This post focuses on co-worker/employer relationships

  • 30 Questions to ask your mentor in your next meeting – This resource provides a comprehensive guide for mentees to enhance their mentorship experience, including different categories of questions to ask a mentor. This site also has various additional useful resources (How to Build a Successful Mentor Relationship, Mentor and Mentee: Roles and Expectations)

Actionable Strategy How to Implement It Resources/Examples
Engaging and model reflective practices for students Compose and share your personal reflections on mentoring experience to demonstrate the value of relationship, faculty/student growth, and continuous learning. This practice strengthens goal alignment for relationships and considerations for effectiveness.
  • University of Edinburgh’s “Reflecting on Experience” -The University of Edinburgh’s “Reflecting on Experience” resource, part of their Reflection Toolkit, offers a comprehensive suite of models to guide individuals through structured reflective practices.
  • UI Reflections on Mentoring Journey – The Indiana University Graduate Mentoring Center’s “Reflection” resource offers a structured guide for both mentors and mentees to introspectively examine their mentoring relationships. It provides reflective prompts to clarify the expectations, learning styles, and communication preferences.
  • Storytelling and Personal Narratives in Mentoring –  Article explores a humanistic mentoring model—centered on empathy, mutuality, and reciprocity—and incorporates storytelling as a key tool for building trust and relational depth.
Assessing student and faculty needs for mentorship (revisited) and narratives Encourage periodic check-ins and use stories from experienced mentors to highlight successful practices. This leads to continuous improvement and adaptation of the mentoring relationship.
Contributors

Stacey D. Curtis, University of Florida

Joe Dikun, University of Mississippi

Lauren Hyden, Santa Fe College

Eliot Parker, University of Mississippi

Michael Seymour, Mississippi State

Jeremy A.M. Waisome, University of Florida