Please consider submitting an abstract to these AGU sessions on: (1) mentoring and (2) emerging challenges in running REU internship programs. These sessions provide wonderful opportunities to meet colleagues, exchange ideas, share experiences and strategies, and present your latest research on mentoring approaches and programs. The descriptions and links are below. The deadline for submitting abstracts to AGU is August 5th.
Warm regards,
- Val
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Session ID#: 8781
Session Description:
One of the key factors cited as impacting
individual career success is having a positive relationship with a
mentor or mentors. This is particularly true for those who are
minorities in the workplace, who might experience isolation, subcultural
differences, or low self-efficacy or a lack of belief in one's own
abilities. In this session, presenters will examine the rationale and
impact of mentoring, the differences between advising and mentoring, and
models of mentoring that do and dont work well. Topics may also
include preparing mentors for their role, mentoring on soft professional
skills like networking and communicating, or dealing with difficult
situations. The session will focus on best practices and lessons learned
on mentoring, including what has been learned from research on
mentoring, with the aim of increasing awareness about the value of and
understanding of best practices for effective mentoring.
Primary Convener: Meredith Galanter Hastings, Brown Univ-Geological Sciences, Providence, RI, United States
Conveners: Valerie Sloan, UCAR, Boulder, CO, United States and Bethany Holm Adamec, American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC, United States
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Session ID#: 7645
Session Description:
Involving undergraduate students in research
can significantly increase their retention in the STEM fields and help
them gain professional skills, learn to think like a scientist, and
raise interest in graduate school. Nonetheless, undergraduate research
is a time and resource intensive activity for faculty. REU staff deal
with issues in the recruitment and selection of diverse student cohorts,
providing mentor support & research projects, developing effective
professional development sessions, or program evaluation. New challenges
emerge every year, such as adapting projects to 2YC students, field
safety and sexual harassment, or even how the larger discussion of race
on a school campus is manifested in individual REU programs. This
session encourages papers on challenges and solutions to issues like
these. Papers that present approaches informed by scholarly literature
or program evaluations are strongly encouraged so that the community of
undergraduate research coordinators become aware of and can build upon
relevant literature. Primary Convener: Rebecca Haacker, UCAR, Boulder, CO, United States. Conveners: Daphne S LaDue, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, United States and Valerie Sloan, UCAR, Boulder, CO, United States.