There is an increasing emphasis being placed on integrating undergraduate students into faculty research at all institutions of higher education - especially for faculty who work at primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs). Carrying out productive research with undergraduates can be distinctively rewarding and valuable for both faculty and students. This scenario can also be uniquely challenging for faculty, in large part because few of us receive any formal training in mentoring students. This workshop aims to draw on the experience of established mentors and the knowledge of participants to generate concrete guidelines for enhancing faculty mentoring of undergraduate research.

This workshop will begin with an introduction by speakers on strategies for effectively mentoring undergraduate students, followed by moderated small-group discussions of the following topics:

1. Mentoring students in the summer versus during the academic year.
2. Facilitating continuity in your research group (including data management).
3. Culturally sensitive mentoring.
4. Training mentors and mentor abuse.
5. Facilitating multi-tier mentoring (including among undergraduates and graduate students/postdocs).
6. Assessing and evaluating mentoring.

Attendees will be divided into small groups which will spend roughly 7.5 minutes discussing each of the topics. At the end of the small group discussions, participants will reconvene and compile specific strategies for addressing each of the topics. Strategies discussed during this workshop will be written up into a “Best Practices for Mentoring Undergraduates” document that will be made publicly available through the RUI section website.