Research Symposium

BIO

I am a Cuban American immigrant from Miami, Florida. I am majoring in Political Science with a minor in History while working on an Undergraduate Certificate in Emergency Management and Homeland Security. I am interested in researching voting behaviors amongst Latin American communities in the United States, potentially pursuing a project for Honors in the Major. I hope to attend law school and eventually pursue a career as a civil litigator.

Mentor Resources and Training in Undergraduate Research Programs

Abstract

Mentorship is an important part of undergraduate research, allowing students to be guided at the start of their research careers. Programs and individual students seek out research projects regardless of the mentor's previous experience. As a result of this, sometimes there is a lack of mentors with training or previous experience mentoring undergraduate students. Some undergraduate research offices including The College of New Jersey and UWA La Crosse have online tools available to research mentors, however, this is not the standard. While many colleges with undergraduate research programs have won awards such as the Campus-Wide Award for Undergraduate Research Accomplishments (AURA) it is not a reflection of their effective mentorship training. Many schools that have received the AURA award have provided examples of mentor training, which we analyze and discuss. Even so, an estimated 33% of the colleges covered in this study have no explicit tools or resources for their mentors available on their websites. The goal of this research is to learn about the resources available for research mentors and determine future steps to improve and support undergraduate research mentors at FSU.

Keywords: Mentor Resources, Undergraduate Research, Mentoring Experiences