PROFESSIONAL MEETINGS: AN EXCELLENT MENTORING TOOL

Richard H. Yahner, Associate Dean of the Graduate School

A mentor is more than an advisor to a graduate student; a mentor also gives a student a variety of tangible and intangible input, such as emotional and moral support, feedback on performance, and sources of information relevant to the discipline. Thus, the responsibilities of an effective mentor are numerous, and foremost among them is to help a student become more scholarly by providing insight into how to stay abreast in the discipline, communicate research findings, and understand how their research fits into the bigger picture (Council of Graduate Schools 1995, 2000).

A very effective means by which a mentor can help a graduate student become a better scholar is to facilitate a student's networking capabilities by strongly encouraging and supporting a graduate student's attendance at professional meetings. Every graduate student should be given the opportunity to attend at least one regional, national, or international meeting per year. From a faculty member perspective, the best professional meetings have always been those that are well attended by many bright, enthusiastic graduate students.

Attendance by a graduate student at a professional meeting has a variety of benefits to both the student and the research program or department. Clearly, a graduate student attending a professional meeting comes away from the meeting with a broader and more enriched view of the culture of his or her discipline. The meeting gives the student an opportunity to meet and interact informally with peers from other institutions and professionals that, prior to the meeting, were probably known only from a journal article, e-mail message, or phone conversation. Furthermore, because every discipline is typically a "small world," discussions and other interactions experienced by a student at a meeting often lead to future collaborations, job prospects, or mutual friendships that otherwise would never unfold.

Once a student is far enough along in his or her research program, the student should be encouraged to give an oral presentation or poster at a professional meeting. This allows the student visibility and better opportunities to meet others who have similar interests at the meeting. Furthermore, every time a student presents his or her research findings before an audience, it augments the student's communication skills, which are vital to a successful oral defense or job interview in the future. Perhaps more importantly, each time a student synthesizes his or her research results and communicates them in a clear, concise manner to an audience, it "forces" the student to reflect on how the research fits into a broader context within the discipline. One way to start this process is to encourage students to present their research findings at the Graduate Exhibition, which is held each spring on the University Park campus. Each of these experiences is a builder of a scholar and a builder of a resume!

Below are some tips for mentors of graduate students regarding graduate student attendance at professional meetings:

"Insist" that your graduate students attend professional meetings; encourage them to give an oral or poster presentation.
Suggest that presentation at the Graduate Exhibition is an excellent "dry-run" for the professional meeting presentation.
Help students obtain monies for travel to meetings; this may include the use of departmental, college, or grant monies for travel (cost-sharing).
Send more than one student to the same meeting to facilitate camaraderie.
Accompany the student(s) at the meeting, and make a concerted effort to introduce the graduate student to others (we've been around longer and know more people!); this reinforces the importance of networking.
Encourage students to take their CVs and business cards to the meeting. Encourage students to keep in touch with contacts made at meetings.

In short, attendance at a professional meeting gives a graduate student an opportunity to go beyond departmental or programmatic walls. The end result is a student who returns to campus academically recharged and refreshed. From an altruistic perspective, attendance and presentations at professional meetings acts to "pipe our horns" - it gives visibility to our research programs and our institution. "Showcasing" the fine research of our graduate students at these meetings also acts as an important recruitment tool. Hence, encouraging and facilitating attendance of our graduate students is an excellent mentoring tool, by serving to recruit, retain, and place graduate students at Penn State. The end result is a better graduate program and a better graduate experience for the student.

References:
Council of Graduate Schools. 1995. A conversation about mentoring: trends and models. Washington, D.C. 39 pp.
Council of Graduate Schools. 2000. A walk through graduate education: selected papers and speeches of Jules B. LaPidus, President of the Council of Graduate Schools, 1984-2000. Washington, D.C. 198 pp.