Stanford
The Fermi Large Area Telescope

Fermi Mentoring Program

MP Logo

Within the Fermi Mentoring Program (MP)

Mentee: graduate students within the LAT Collaboration and the GBM Team (e.g. Masters students, PhD students, etc.)
Mentor: PhD-holders within the LAT Collaboration and the GBM Team (e.g. postdocs, faculty members, research scientists, etc.). Mentors do not supersede or interfere with the role of the research advisor, but rather serve as an additional resource.
MP Committee: Mentoring Program Committee, volunteer-based group responsible for overseeing the mentoring program. The current AC/DC are aware of/active in the workings of this committee.

Goals of the program

  1. Creating an effective mentoring structure
  2. Fostering strong and lasting relationships between mentors/mentees
  3. Sharing resources and communicating advice in order to remove barriers to success, both personal and professional

Motivation

  • Effective and early mentoring is crucial for student’s success and retention, in particular for students from underrepresented groups in astro/physics

  • Supporting and welcoming environment for the current junior members; inviting to the new members. This, in long-run, will increase the diversity of our collaboration

  • Onboarding of graduate students through research advising: no explicit mentoring expectations or training were structured into the initial advising model within the LAT Collaboration and GBM Team

Program structure

MP will be organized and operated by a standing MP Committee (volunteer-based)

MP Committee roles: 

  1. Operational (mentor/mentee selection and matching, mentor/mentee training)
  2. Administrative (program overview, expansion, and interface with other DEI efforts within or out the LAT Collaboration)

Mentor/Mentee Recruitment & Matching

Mentee Recruitment:

  • Whenever a new student joins the Collaboration
  • Annually, at the "spring" Collaboration Meeting

Mentor Recruitment:

  • Annually, every other Collaboration Meeting

Mentor/Mentee Recruitment & Matching

  1. Matching based on questionnaire answers, weighted by mentee/mentor’s preference indicated in the questionnaire
  2. Career advice; navigating the field with given identities, such as gender, race, ethnicity, etc.; outreach advice; research advice; preferred language of communication; time zones; desired frequency of meeting, etc.
  3. Nominally sent out annually; re-matching or joining in the midst of a mentoring cycle if expressed interest

Mentor/Mentee Expectations

  • Training
  1. Required on an annual basis, unless a special circumstance communicated with the MP
    Committee
  2. Will be run online
  • Time Commitment
  1. Cycle lasts 12 months. Re-matching with a new mentor encouraged, staying in the same
    mentoring arrangement only if strong desire indicated
  2. Meet at least monthly, for at least an hour (with the exception of the months were vacations are happening). It is advised to schedule all the meetings during the first meeting between the mentor and the mentee.
  • Setting the expectations
  1. During the first meeting, set mentoring goals. Guidance questions provided. Schedule all the meetings of the current mentoring cycle.
  • Feedback
  1. Feedback survey at the end of the mentoring cycle
  • Confidentiality
  1. Conversations must be kept confidential, unless specified otherwise by the mentee/mentor, notwithstanding disclosures required by superseding policies or laws


 

Training

It is run by Dr. Rania Sanford, the Director of Faculty Professional Development at the School of Medicine at Stanford University.

If you have any questions feel free to contact the MP Committee