– Jean-Luc Jannink

A SIPS-wide faculty mentoring workshop was held on November 14. I thought the workshop was great and provided me with a strong motivation to mentor more effectively.  The workshop sparked a lot of energy and I’m hoping the following synopsis will motivate other SIPS faculty to sign up for the workshops yet to come.

FAIM workshop summary

FAIM is a collaboration between the Graduate School Office of Inclusion and Student Engagement and the Provost’s Office for Faculty Development and Diversity. The workshop set the stage with definitions, desired outcomes, and barriers to mentoring, driven by faculty input through cellphone wordcloud and feedback mechanisms.

Case study: We really got going with a case study on the mentoring of a first-year doctoral student by a high-powered faculty member.  The mentoring relationship is at risk of going off the rails.  What are challenges the student faces?  What are perceptions the faculty may have?  The student identifies as non-binary and is first generation. Possible behavior shifts to remedy the situation are universal but the student’s minoritized status adds components of bias to think through.  Workshop facilitators skillfully responded to SIPS faculty comments on the case study, fleshing out approaches to decrease student anxiety and increase their sense of belonging, broaden mentoring networks for the student and communicate expectations. These approaches were also linked to tools available on the Cornell FAIM page.

The workshop combined motivation, with challenge and pointers to support.  Let’s do it: everyone attend the workshop and make mentoring the water-cooler and hallway conversation in SIPS!

Upcoming workshops

• Session 2 – Geneva Faculty
  Friday, Nov. 30, 2023 12pm – 2pm
  Jordan Hall 210 – Lunch provided!
  Register for Session 2
• Session 3 – Ithaca Faculty Friday
  Jan 19, 2024 12pm – 2pm
  135 Emerson Hall – Lunch provided!
  Registration: To be released soon