Mentoring March
Mentoring March offers a variety of programs to help faculty develop mentoring skills and build communities around mentoring from a variety of approaches. Programs on honing your mentoring skills to mentor at any level; workshops focused on the specific experiences of mentoring undergraduates, graduate students, or postdocs; programs that seek to build communities of mentorship among colleagues; and sessions to help you find mentors for yourself.
Effective Mentoring without Burnout
In honor of Mentoring March, Virginia Tech is offering two events, one virtual and one in-person, for faculty who would like to feel more confident and effective in their mentoring.
We all know that great teachers inspire–and that has as much to do with how we make others feel as what we teach them. In these two workshops, we will focus on how mentors can foster a sense of calm and therefore encourage better learning and engagement. We do this through the neuroscience of emotional processing, modeling for others an experience of regulation that helps them connect new experiences to prior ones.
In this workshop, we'll provide easily understandable details about what happens in the body-brain when we are moving from stressful to calm environments. Participants will then experience this first hand by working with a case study challenge and using practices that therapists and coaches use to reframe and regulate emotions. These practices not only help others learn from us, they also help us prevent burnout and engage more fully as effective mentors.
Date/Time: March 11, 2024; 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Location: Virtual via Zoom (for Extended Campus Faculty)
Mutual Mentoring Workshop for Women Faculty
This workshop is designed to empower women faculty at Virginia Tech by fostering collaborative networks that facilitate the exchange of knowledge and experiences within specific areas such as research, teaching, tenure, work-life issues, cultural matters, identity groups, and more. A key objective is to encourage women faculty to develop professional and social networks within our academic community. Offered by AdvanceVT and Faculty Affairs
Date/Time: March 14, 2024; 9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. (drop-in welcome)
Location: In-Person
Mentoring: Challenges, Opportunities, Experiences: Roving Brown Bag Series
As part of the Graduate School’s commitment to provide a variety of mentoring supports, the roving brown-bag lunch series intended to create and cultivate a community of practice with discussions around mentoring. Graduate students, faculty, and staff are welcome to attend one, two, or all of the lunches—whatever suits their schedule and interest. These rich conversations include discussions about challenges, opportunities, experiences, and successes. Bring lunch and participate or just eat and listen. All are welcome. Offered by the Graduate School
Date/Time: March 18, 2024; 12:00-1:15 p.m.
Location: In-Person or Virtual via Zoom (Hybrid/No registration required)
Read the VT campus notice for more details: Mentoring support brown-bag lunches with Graduate School Dean Surprenant
NCFDD Watch Party: Cultivating Your Network of Mentors, Sponsors & Collaborators
Do you have a reliable and strong network of mentors? Are you struggling to cultivate mentoring relationships? Do you know the difference between a mentor and a sponsor? Are you moving to a new stage of your career and wondering how to find new mentors and sponsors that are appropriate to the next level? To explore strategies to address your mentoring needs, join us to view a recorded webinar from the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity. This session is designed to help you:
- Map your current mentoring network
- Identify your unmet needs
- Plan how to expand your existing network to meet your current needs
Date/Time: March 19, 2024; 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Location: In-Person
Effective Mentoring without Burnout
In honor of Mentoring March, Virginia Tech is offering two events, one virtual and one in-person, for faculty who would like to feel more confident and effective in their mentoring.
We all know that great teachers inspire–and that has as much to do with how we make others feel as what we teach them. In these two workshops, we will focus on how mentors can foster a sense of calm and therefore encourage better learning and engagement. We do this through the neuroscience of emotional processing, modeling for others an experience of regulation that helps them connect new experiences to prior ones.
In this workshop, we'll provide easily understandable details about what happens in the body-brain when we are moving from stressful to calm environments. Participants will then experience this first hand by working with a case study challenge and using practices that therapists and coaches use to reframe and regulate emotions. These practices not only help others learn from us, they also help us prevent burnout and engage more fully as effective mentors.
Date/Time: March 22, 2024; 1:00–4:00 p.m.
Location: In-Person
Entering Mentoring Curriculum: Evaluating Student Learning
Building on the Entering Mentoring Curriculum and continuing conversations started at the January Mentoring Undergraduates in Research workshop, this workshop focuses on crafting recommendation letters for students. We will start by considering how mentors can evaluate student learning, particularly in the research setting, and then discuss best practices for writing honest and impactful recommendation letters for students. The end product/workshop takeaway will be a draft of a letter template in which participants have blocks outlined for information to include. This workshop is appropriate for any faculty, post doc or graduate student mentor at any stage in their academic career. Offered by the Office of Undergraduate Research
Date/Time: March 25, 2024; 9:00–11:00 a.m.
Location: In-Person
Mentoring Postdoctoral Associates Roundtable
Join your colleagues in a discussion of the unique context of mentorship for these appointments. A panel of faculty will offer their experiences, lessons learned, and best practices. Offered by the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs in the Office of Research and Innovation
Date/Time: March 26, 2024; 2:00–3:30 p.m.
Location: Virtual via Zoom
Best Practices for Mentorship in Teaching
When we think about teaching, images of formal instructor-student classroom interactions might often come to mind. However, opportunities also exist to make a meaningful impact on students' learning experiences beyond the classroom through mentoring. This workshop will focus on the role of mentorship in teaching and will provide participants with strategies for building and maintaining mentoring connections with students in learning environments. Facilitators: Offered by the Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning
Date/Time: March 26, 2024; 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Location: Virtual via Zoom
Find more information on the CETL Workshops page.
Co-Authoring with Graduate Students
Co-authorship with graduate students is important and rewarding work. We want our graduate students to learn to write and publish. We know that they need strong writing skills in order to complete their degrees and thrive in their careers. And, our own research programs may rely on our students' successful completion of their papers, theses, and dissertations.
At the same time, co-authorship can be time-consuming and often overwhelming. For many of us, it seems like no one really taught us how to do it well. So we act out of habit, or replicate how we were taught. But, we also wonder if there’s a better way.
In this workshop, we'll discuss strategies for managing your time, giving feedback that students will actually use, and teaching co-authorship as an essential professional skill.
Date/Time: March 28, 2024; 9:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Location: Virtual via Zoom
Wednesday Drop-In Writing Group
Faculty from across VT campuses are invited to join colleagues in an informal virtual writing session. Hosted weekly on Zoom by Dr. Danna Agmon (History and ASPECT), participants will write using 25 minute Pomodoro’s starting on the half hour. If you join mid-pomodoro, just start writing and sync up with us in the next 5 minute break. Drop in as best suits your needs and schedule.
Date/Time: Wednesdays March 6, 13, 20, 27; 9:30–11:30 a.m.
Location: Virtual via Zoom
No registration required: email copiche@vt.edu to request the Zoom link.