This engaging, multimedia, web-based course teaches STEM mentors the skills needed to create and maintain an effective mentoring relationship with a mentee in an effort to encourage youth to continue seeking opportunities in STEM and support mentees who are underrepresented in STEM fields.
There are fewer and fewer youth pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) each year, and there are subgroups of youth that are underrepresented in these fields including women, immigrants and refugees, people with a disability, people from an ethnic or racial minority group, and first-generation college students. In addition to engaging in fun STEM activities with mentees, to be optimally effective, STEM mentors should try to create impactful relationships with their mentees by understanding the appropriate roles and behaviors involved in an effective mentoring relationship, and learning skills to help recruit and retain youth who are traditionally underrepresented in STEM fields, so that mentees feel a sense of belonging and purpose in STEM.
The new STEM mentor training course will provide mentors with essential skills to learn and practice these skills before they meet with their mentee(s) and to create mentoring experiences with lasting impacts.
Mentors learn about the importance of training, the benefits of mentoring for mentees, and the importance of fulfilling the minimum commitments and requirements of the mentoring program.
Mentors learn about what makes STEM mentoring effective and the common barriers to the recruitment and retention of young people in STEM careers.
Mentors reflect on their own motivations for being a STEM mentor and consider how those motivations may differ from the goals of their mentees as well as how to manage those differences to have an effective relationship.
Mentors learn to identify the positive and realistic expectations they should have for being a STEM mentor.
Mentors will understand the essential roles a mentor plays in the life of a mentee.
Mentors learn about the importance of maintaining boundaries in the mentoring relationship and how they can promote healthy, safe, and close relationships.
Mentors prepare for the first meeting with their mentee.
Mentors learn about four strategies for how act as a change agent during their everyday interactions with their mentees.
STEM mentors learn about how they can support mentees from groups of people who are traditionally underrepresented in STEM pursue their STEM interests, education, and career goals.
STEM mentors gain awareness of their own cultural background and how to understand and consider the culture of their mentees. Mentor deepen their understanding of how the mentees’ culture may impact their interactions and mentoring relationship.
Mentors learn about the concept of microaggressions and how individuals from underrepresented groups in STEM careers can experience microaggressions. Mentors also learn how to support mentees who may have or may in the future experience microaggressions related to pursuing STEM education or careers.
Upon completion of the course, mentors receive a certificate.
This course has a new, unique feature in that mentoring programs can create a custom version of the course to meet their needs including:
The course includes the following additional features: