Advising and Mentoring Your Students

Graduate students look to faculty and mentors for feedback on articles, theses, and dissertations, for help networking at conferences, and for career advice.

Encourage your students to create an Individual Professional Development Plan, which can be used as a tool to guide conversations  and help students identify their goals and needs. Other resources include:

In the Classroom

The Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning provides comprehensive support for all Mason faculty, instructors, and graduate students as they develop fully as teachers, mentors, and colleagues. Learn more about:

  • Designing digitally enhanced, hybrid or face-to-face courses.
  • Strengthening and refining teaching approaches.
  • Supporting learning strategies.

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Build a Relationship with Your Faculty Research Advisor 

To be successful in a research-based graduate program, it is imperative to build a relationship with your advisor. This mentorship can be vital to your graduate experience and your career beyond. As with any partnership, the following expectations should be met for the mentor-mentee relationship to be mutually beneficial: 

  • Respect for one another as a student and a professional. 

  • Open, clear, and timely communication about research expectations, project timelines, the student’s progress, and any issues that may arise. 

  • Working cohesively towards research skills and production goals. 

This is not a comprehensive list, because every research team is different. Therefore, it is important to discuss all expectations once you have committed to working together.