Mentoring philosophy
Although there has been a lot of positive change, the sciences and academia in general still have a problem retaining people from under-represented groups. I believe that good mentoring can bring about positive outcomes for equity, diversity and inclusion in science in the same way that poor mentoring can result in the exclusion of students from under-represented backgrounds. As such, I make efforts through mentoring to try to foster a sense of belonging in research for all students and encourage them towards their goals. There are many facets of a career in research that are challenging, but discrimination that leads to a person feeling they don’t belong should not be one of them. I acknowledge that I will not always understand the lived experiences of all students or in my classroom or research group, but I will work hard to support them. To ensure this, I do my best to uphold a mentoring philosophy, which includes a plan for actively ensuring and assessing equitable outcomes for mentees and students.
- Facilitating individual career goals
- Part of this process is setting goals (and continuously re-evaluating them) with milestones that can be tracked with each mentee.
- I will make efforts to create opportunities for mentees to meet these goals and hold myself responsible for all mentees to have equal opportunities through continuous assessment.
- I recognize that not everybody’s goal is to be a professor and will not perpetuate the idea that leaving academia is “quitting”, training in environmental science leads to all sorts of fulfilling careers and I will encourage mentees to set goals that align with their own aspirations.
- A safe environment for reporting issues
- I take it as my responsibility as a mentor and teacher to be accessible and have integrity such that mentees feel comfortable bringing academic or personal issues related to the research environment to the forefront. In this environment;
- Mentees should feel comfortable reporting failures or mistakes in academic work.
- Mentees should feel comfortable reporting experiences of disrespect or discrimination.
- Mentees should feel comfortable whistleblowing when they observe discrimination in the research environment.
- All mentees will be treated with kindness and respect and I expect mentees to do the same with all members of the research team.