Research Mentor Training

At UMass Amherst, we strive to help our faculty become more effective mentors of their graduate students, postdocs, and undergraduate researchers as an important part of building our campus community. We are proud to offer Research Mentor Training and additional resources to help you hone your skills in this important area of professional development.

Research Mentor Training

The Graduate School offers Research Mentor Training for faculty who mentor graduate students, postdocs, and undergraduates in research. This training is based on material developed by the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER), sister organization of the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN). This well-crafted program has been implemented nationwide and has well-documented positive impacts on both mentors and mentees.

This is not a 9-hour lecture! Instead, with the help of trained facilitators, you'll discuss with your colleagues well-crafted case studies, sample compacts that you might use with your mentees, and tools designed to help you reflect on your own style of mentoring. The topics include aligning expectations with mentees, maintaining effective communication, addressing equity and inclusion, fostering independence, and promoting wellbeing. 

You’ll leave with lots of new strategies and a more nuanced understanding of the mentoring relationship. Even experienced mentors report that they learn new things and benefit from the training. We promise you won’t be bored! 

Join the more than 420 UMass faculty who have completed Research Mentor Training! We also offer this training to graduate students and postdocs.

See below for upcoming Research Mentor Training. If there are no trainings scheduled, or if the ones that are scheduled don't work for you, please fill out this form to express your interest, and we will notify you when the next training is scheduled.

Questions? Email mentortraining [at] grad [dot] umass [dot] edu (mentortraining[at]grad[dot]umass[dot]edu).

Upcoming Research Mentor Training

For faculty from all disciplines - Friday, Sept. 27th, Friday, Oct. 11th & Friday, Oct. 18th   - 9:00am - 12:00pm each day

• This training is open to faculty from all disciplines.
• In person! Location TBA
• We'll provide coffee, tea, fruit & pastries in the morning

Register for RMT on 9/27, 10/11 & 10/18! (Direct URL: https://forms.gle/8iQiajaFNzjftvmr6)

For faculty from all disciplines - Thursday, January 23rd & Friday, January 24th  - 9:00am - 1:30pm each day

• This training is open to faculty from all disciplines.
• In person! Location TBA
• We'll provide coffee & tea in the morning & lunch in the afternoon

Register for RMT on 1/23 & 1/24! (Direct URL: https://forms.gle/hKeBBwBZ4XNGRMei6)

Please note:

• We ask that you commit to attending the full 9 hours of training.
• You must be logged in with your UMass NetID to access the registration form. If you get a message that you don't have access, navigate to https://apps.umass.edu/, sign in with your NetID, and then try the form again.
• We cannot offer the option of attending these sessions remotely - the interactive nature of these trainings makes hybrid offerings infeasible. 

Can't make these trainings? Fill out the interest form to be notified about the next training.

Have you taken Research Mentor Training and are you interested in becoming a facilitator? Please contact mentortraining [at] grad [dot] umass [dot] edu (mentortraining[at]grad[dot]umass[dot]edu).

Culturally Aware Mentoring

The Graduate School is pleased to offer a new follow-up to our regular Research Mentor Training - Culturally Aware Mentoring (CAM). CAM focuses specifically on how mentors interact with mentees of diverse backgrounds. While the regular Research Mentor Training has a short section on this topic, CAM provides the deeper and more nuanced examination that the topic deserves. CAM was developed and tested in a randomized controlled trial by the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER), sister organization of the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN). CAM has proven effective in allowing faculty to address cultural diversity in their mentoring relationships.

CAM training has three parts: Part 1 is intrapersonal - reflecting on your own identity; Part 2 is interpersonal - considering the identity of others; and Part 3 is skill building, with the chance to practice your responses to different scenarios in working with graduate students. It’s a very engaging and sometimes very moving set of activities, and the practice sessions at the end are invaluable.

CAM specifically focuses on mentoring across racial identities, because this is where, in American society, conversations tend to be most challenging. Insights you gain will be transferable to mentoring relationships across other axes of identity.

CAM is open to faculty who have completed Research Mentor Training at UMass or a similar training elsewhere of at least 6 hours. The next offering of CAM will be on 8/28-8/29. If you've completed Research Mentor Training, check your email for an invitation to this offering of CAM.

Questions? Email mentortraining [at] grad [dot] umass [dot] edu (mentortraining[at]grad[dot]umass[dot]edu).

More Mentoring Resources

Read A Guide for Mentoring Graduate Students at UMass Amherst, a document of best practices and helpful links for faculty mentors.

Advice for Supporting Graduate Students in Times of Stress contains specific advice for both mentors and graduate programs, as well as links to many resources.

We offer a Mentoring Up workshop for graduate students to help graduate students take an active role in their mentoring relationships. Using the language we use in Research Mentor Training, we encourage students to engage in aligning expectations with their advisors, establishing good communication structures, and other advice meant to help students negotiate relationships in which they are often acutely aware of the power dynamics. We offer the workshop periodically to all grad students, but you can also request a Mentoring Up workshop for grad students in your program (email mentortraining [at] grad [dot] umass [dot] edu (mentortraining[at]grad[dot]umass[dot]edu)).