Advancing Mentorship Practices

Maximizing Your Mentoring Relationship explored how mentorship—both formal and informal—serves as an integral part of personal and professional development. While each mentor-mentee relationship is unique, this workshop focused on broadly-applicable principles and practices that foster trust, growth, and inclusivity in any context.

In this interactive session, participants learned concrete strategies for identifying and addressing common mentorship challenges. An interdisciplinary panel of mentor-mentee pairs shared their approaches to building effective mentoring relationships, then engaged in informal conversation with attendees. The session concluded by identifying on-campus resources and next steps for strengthening mentorship connections. Panelists included Ruben Gonzalez, Professor of Chemistry; Helen Lu, Hudson Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Senior Vice Dean of Faculty Affairs and Advancement; Kristin Myers, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering; and selected mentees accompanying these mentors.

This session offered pertinent guidance and models for current and future mentees as well as those planning to take on the role of academic mentor during their careers. Breakfast was provided to registered participants.

Everything is Fine!: Mentoring to Support Graduate Student Mental Health used dramatized scenarios performed by the CRLT Players from the University of Michigan to explore critical mentoring challenges affecting graduate student wellbeing. Through scenes depicting both informal peer conversations and formal advisor-mentee meetings, the performance examined how structural and interpersonal dynamics impact mental health in graduate education. The piece also addressed pandemic-era challenges that reshaped the mentoring landscape. Following the performance, faculty participated in facilitated discussion to develop concrete strategies for strengthening their mentoring relationships.

The CTL and colleagues held monthly conversations on mentorship best practices, challenges, and new methodologies. Together, participants learned by reading excerpts from Bridging Differences for Better Mentoring: Lean Forward, Learn, Leverage (Fain and Zachary, 2020).

These online conversations were facilitated by the CTL, included discussion guides to prompt active discussion and encourage community. In 2025, the following themes were discussed: 

• February 6: Assumptions and Expectations
• March 6: Mentoring and Mental Health
• April 10: Addressing Challenging Moments
• May 1: Building Trust and Giving Feedback

Determining whether our mentees understand the content and processes of our disciplines is not easy, yet doing so is critical for a productive mentoring relationship. In this session, research mentors will explore ways to assess how well their mentees are understanding core research concepts and processes of their discipline. Through facilitated discussions and case studies, research mentors will collectively explore strategies to identify potential causes for when mentees struggle with understanding and how to address them accordingly. 

Research groups composed of people with diverse cultures and experiences tend to be more creative and innovative when every member of the research team feels they can share their unique perspectives. In this session, research mentors will examine how they can unlock the benefits of a culturally diverse research group using inclusive practices. Research mentors will examine the ways the policies, expectations, and behaviors in their lab can promote an inclusive culture. Through facilitated discussions and case studies, research mentors will collectively explore strategies that they can use to engage in conversations about diversity with mentees and foster a sense of belonging.