IGE: Mentoring for Life: Enhancing STEM Graduate Student Well-Being

科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)学科存在留住问题，特别是对代表性不足的研究生。尽管学生离开的原因有很多，但一个潜在的原因是缺乏对指导和学生福祉的关注。没有归属感的学生更有可能离开，而无法与教职员工建立信任和支持关系的学生也是如此。这些研究生的流失代表着未来科学能力的潜在损失。这项授予东密歇根大学的国家科学基金会研究生教育创新(IGE)奖将试行一项导师证书计划，旨在让STEM研究生在导师和福祉方面接触到基于证据的实践。这项工作将试点、测试和验证基于研究生社会化和社会认知职业理论模型的指导干预措施，旨在解决幸福感下降的多种潜在原因，同时将研究生培养成有效的导师。对研究生进行有效指导的培训将确保这些学生成为教师、主管和导师本身的可持续性。本项目旨在了解STEM的研究生职业认同、职业满意度和归属感如何受到围绕学生幸福设计的指导计划的影响？通过互动工作坊，情感健康小组和资源开发研究生将获得必要的工具，以：(1)成功地指导不同的STEM学生；(2)更好地管理他们自己的情绪健康；以及(3)在他们自己的部门内倡导改善指导体验。STEM部门将有机会了解拟议的研究生培训证书，并思考如何将导师培训和最佳做法纳入部门文化。评估研究将为项目团队提供形成性和总结性反馈，以告知他们的团队流程和干预设计。将使用定性焦点小组数据来扩展和澄清定量调查数据。对导师证书计划的评估将为该计划的哪些方面有效地提高研究生的幸福感和成功提供证据。研究生教育创新(IGE)计划专注于研究生教育的研究。IGE的目标是试验、测试和验证研究生教育的创新方法，并产生将这些方法推广到更广泛社区所需的知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines have a retention issue, especially for underrepresented graduate students. Although students leave for many reasons, one underlying cause is a lack of attention to mentoring and students’ well-being. Students who do not feel as if they belong are more likely to leave as are students who are unable to develop a trusting, supportive relationship with faculty. The loss of these graduate students represents a potential loss to future scientific capacity. This National Science Foundation Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) award to Eastern Michigan University will pilot a Mentoring Certificate program designed to expose STEM graduate students to evidence-based practices in mentoring and well-being. This work will pilot, test, and validate mentoring interventions grounded in models of graduate student socialization and socio-cognitive career theory, designed to address the multiple underlying causes of declining well-being, and simultaneously train graduate students to be effective mentors. The training of graduate students to mentor effectively will ensure sustainability as these students become faculty, supervisors, and mentors themselves.This project seeks to understand how are graduate student professional identity, career satisfaction, and sense of belonging in STEM impacted by a mentoring program designed around student well-being? Through interactive workshops, emotional well-being groups, and resource development graduate students will gain the tools necessary to: (1) successfully mentor diverse STEM students; (2) better manage their own emotional well-being; and (3) advocate for improved mentoring experiences within their own departments. STEM departments will have an opportunity to learn about the proposed graduate training certificate and reflect on ways in which mentor training and best practices can be integrated into departmental culture. An evaluation study will provide the project team with formative and summative feedback to inform their team processes and design of the intervention. Qualitative focus group data will be used to expand upon and clarify quantitative survey data. The evaluation of the Mentoring Certificate program will provide evidence for which aspects of the program are effective for enhancing graduate student well-being and success.The Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) program is focused on research in graduate education. The goals of IGE are to pilot, test and validate innovative approaches to graduate education and to generate the knowledge required to move these approaches into the broader community.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.