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From my own experience as an undergraduate at a large university where I didn’t feel that I stood out, I understand that it can be a difficult leap of faith to believe that everyone can do science.  It wasn’t until I started working in a research lab, with fellow female scientists who mentored and guided me, did I recognize my potential and understand that conducting science was not an exalted practice for an elite brilliant few, but rather it was the work of anyone diligent and curious enough to answer the call.  It is through this lens that I conduct my mentoring and try to make research an enriching experience for each student who works in my lab.  I believe every student who walks through the door can do meaningful science, and it’s my responsibility to encourage them to believe that for themselves too.

From a mentoring standpoint, my goal is to engage students and holistically teach them skills that go beyond the technical points of our work, namely, how to analyze critically and independently, how to engage their curiosity in a productive way, how to communicate their science and relate it to different audiences, and how to feel empowered in their own skills and achievements.  I want to demystify process of science so that students can take agency over their own projects and develop their own instincts in the way they conduct research.  My sincere hope is that they can translate this confidence in their own thinking and analysis to other aspects of their learning and their life.  

I love all the work I do with students at St. Kate’s, but I achieve the greatest fulfillment and pleasure through mentoring students in my lab, watching them mature and grow as scientists in their own right.  It is an honor to be a part of that spark, and help ignite the flame of inquiry for them, and see them embody their potential.  It gives me the greatest joy to see them find success in their paths and become accomplished scientists and clinicians, and I am humbled and honored to have been a part of their journey.

Mentoring students through a drug discovery research experience is such a rewarding and energizing endeavor. Discovering a new antibiotic doesn’t happen every day, but I can guarantee that every time I partner with a student in the drug discovery process that we will discover something “new” (to us). Helping students test their potential, bust through glass ceilings and imagine new dreams is the easiest and hardest work I do as a professor. In order to maximize the impact of our time together, I first need to know what “makes this student tick.” Why are they interested in our research (hint: it doesn’t have to be because of the chemistry)? What does this budding scientist want to do after St. Kate’s? How do their passions align with the objectives of our work and the overall goal of discovering a new antibiotic? Then it’s my job, as the mentor, to keep both of these goals in mind as I design the lab experience, dissemination of our work, and professional training of my students. We are going to find new medicinal compounds while working to recruit, empower and energize the next generation of socially responsible scientists. In my lab, students can expect to build self-confidence by making mistakes, trying again, understanding the “why”, and trying again. We hold ourselves to high standards (scientifically and socially) which means we are going to stumble along the way. But we don’t quit and we don’t get down on ourselves. We just keep learning and growing. After all, some of the best science comes from happy little “mistakes.” I also expect that my students are able to share the stories of their work with natural products scientists at a national meeting as well as the stranger sitting next to them on the bus. It’s our job to both understand the science and help those around us understand the science too. When all is said and done, my student partners should feel challenged, supported, and leave our time together seeing themselves as powerful professionals with a network of opportunities welcoming them to their next adventure.

As a mentor, I have the opportunity to impart leadership skills with research teams that investigate complex physics phenomena. These teams can be a subset of a class cohort or individual students digging into a component that connects together on a larger research project. All students approach research differently and it is my job to support and integrate varied learning and research styles to achieve team goals. This is a collaborative process where all ideas, suggestions, and thoughts are valued. By coordinating research aims our combined team outcomes end up being more than what could be achieved as individuals. Experimental questions are generated multiple ways including information generated in Sonography/Physics course-based undergraduate research experiences, from high altitude ballooning team student inquiries on stratosphere dynamics, and through collaborative needs of different Universities in the high-altitude ballooning consortium. No matter the origin of the project, my job is to bring connections from what we learn in class and show the myriad of applications that exist outside of textbook chapters. For larger research projects, I bring back alumna that have offered to assist on projects after graduation. Including alumna into our team expands the work we are able to do and adds historical perspectives for projects. Fostering student alumni mentoring and networking models the high impact practices done by physics professionals and graduate students. It also fosters the spirt of forever St. Catherine which has resonated with our team.

As an economist, why do I mentor? Economists have a concept called a “multiplier effect,” which describes how, when you take an action, the impact of that action is just the starting point. There is a ripple effect, and not a diminishing ripple, but rather a growing, compounding, multiplying effect. Each student I mentor not only becomes more able to achieve her own goals, but also more able to serve and help others achieve their goals. Having a multiplier effect fundamentally depends on providing students with meaningful learning experiences. This process starts with getting to know students as people, so I can tailor my mentoring, encouragement, and advice to their goals. Mentoring also means having fun. All of my mentees are delightful, impressive individuals who are a joy to work with. Yet research can become frustrating and having a sense of fun and humor helps us persist, learn, and succeed.

As a mentor, I try to involve my students in all the levels of scholarly thought. This starts with discussing the goals and planned outputs of the specific survey programming, data analysis, literature review, or writing task that we are undertaking. The research process also moves to thinking about how to manage time, collaboration, and tasks. As much as possible I give students leadership and ownership of their work and how they organize that work, as they learn more from being self-directed and problem-solving, with me as a cheerleader, coach, and backstop as needed. As students build their skills, they take them forward to their peers in the Economics Research Lab and teach each other. Ultimately, they build on their experiences in their careers, and their own future mentoring. While I get to enjoy their triumphs and accomplishments now, society will enjoy their ongoing impact, benefiting others in turn.

In the Economics and Political Science Department, we place a high priority on collaborative research and working on research with students is hands-down my favorite part of my job. Students quickly find their voice and learn that research is not some mystical thing done by a select few but rather a broad effort to expand our collective knowledge. Students collaborate on every step of the process from forming the research question to conducting the statistical analysis to presenting at national conferences.

I want my mentees to have what Carol Dweck calls a “growth mindset” which comes when we realize that no one was born knowing how to code or how to write a journal article, these are skills you learn. Once students embrace this growth mindset they realize there are no limits to what they can achieve.

What it takes to be a chemist cannot be read in a book as the problems encountered in lab can only be efficiently learned from multiple apprenticeships. These apprenticeships begin with me and continue when my students go onto graduate and medical school programs.

Chemical apprenticeship does not mean a master apprentice showing students how to successfully complete chemical reactions but it refers to the intangibles that go beyond. It means teaching students not to be flustered when an experiment does not work correctly. It means installing the work ethic and resolve to keep trying even when they know they will likely no longer be around when their project is complete. It means teaching students to think like a chemist by analyzing all variables. It means teaching students to act like a chemist by not being afraid to try something new, or admitting a mistake, or going out on a limb to ask for advice from others that you may not even know.

Each student is different and needs to be pushed in different ways to be successful in the next step of their lives. This may mean needing to learn how to speak and write concisely, to refrain from saying sorry unless they actually did something wrong, or how to prepare to speak to a room of over 100 people.

If I do my job a student’s weakness may still exist but it will not be their downfall. If I am an effective mentor my students will complete projects, publish results and go onto successful programs and careers. More importantly they will know they are a chemist and have the self-confidence, resolve, and joy to back it up.

Through my mentorship, I provide meaningful experiences for students in a variety of ways. I engage students in research that helps them build on their classroom experiences (ideas and techniques) and connect their research to the greater community of chemistry scholarship. I help students create meaningful research projects that build on students’ strengths and interests but also ensure they must stretch beyond their experience and become increasingly independent in guiding the direction of their work. I guide students to carefully examine the work of others, critically evaluate published work, and help students apply these same skills to their own scholarship. I emphasize the importance of scientific communication and expect and support all students I mentor to present their research to a variety of audiences. I stress the ethical and economic responsibilities that scientists have to disseminate their work, to use resources wisely, and carefully consider the implications of their work. At the same time, I help to instill in my mentees the respect for basic research and the importance of understanding research outcomes in the absence of obvious applications. I encourage my mentees to support one another, share their knowledge of techniques and theory, and experience the benefits of collaborative science research while also maintaining ownership of individual research work. I endeavor to publish quality research outcomes of all my students in a timely fashion to help best benefit those students as they pursue graduate school, REU opportunities, and employment. I involve students in the publication process, sharing the work, frustrations, and joy in bringing our scholarship to life. I continue to commit my program of scholarship to involve students at every level and help students develop as scholars.

Literary scholars try out ideas, develop interpretations, and test theories in the classroom. For years, I have maintained that the best way to be an active researcher as a baccalaureate faculty member is to take your scholarly work to your students. But a few years ago, the other half of that dynamic emerged in a research project that my students brought to me, my first Harry Potter book, A Wizard of Their Age (SUNY 2015).

It started with a few English majors and their interest in and knowledge of these novels—and their desire to study them seriously. They requested a Harry Potter course, so we developed one together. Then, inspired by class discussions and their scholarly insights, we decided to put together a collection of essays from “the Harry Potter generation,” undergrads like them who had grown up with the books. Eight of us began to meet, in 2010, as an editorial team, and I guided them through the process of writing a proposal, a call for papers, a query letter. We sorted through and assessed the submitted essays, carefully naming our criteria for excellence. We edited the essays repeatedly, creatively arranging and rearranging them; we constructed a style sheet, and worked to make the essays consistent.

Once we got a contract from a university press, I walked the editors through how to respond to peer reviewers. After our final round of editing, we proofread together for hours on end and even settled, somewhat amicably, a passionate disagreement over the Oxford comma (I lost). It was an amazing, intensive, bonding, learning experience for all of us from beginning to end. To see the editors and contributors reading from their work at lectures, events, and parties the year the book came out was to see how transformative it could be for those women to have their ideas taken seriously, in print, in a scholarly book. It reaffirmed, for me, the significance of literary research.

Using that experience as a model, I took my inquiry into Gertrude Stein’s experimental Modernist novel The Making of Americans into an English senior seminar the following year in a different, more democratic way, asking my students to read and explore it with me for a paper I was writing. It was a big ask. When we made it through 925 repetitive, confusing, exhilarating pages, we all decided that there should be a handbook for reading it—and we were the ones to write it. Four years later, the project is completed and awaiting publication, and my student co-author and contributors’ voices echo through its pages.

The intensive advising and mentoring we practice routinely in the English department set me up for these profound exchanges with student scholars, just as my experience with my own research prepared me to work with theirs. Our collaborative practices in the humanities, the seamless shift from text to research to classroom to publication, are the foundation of my work as a mentor.

Throughout my career at the University, I have done my scholarship in collaboration with undergraduates. Not only is participation in research integral to undergraduate education in biology; it allows students to explore their creative, intellectual, and scientific potentials.

My approach is to work with students as a mentor. I actively involve students in experimental design, in data gathering, and in interpretation of results. This fosters the development of a relationship which not only confers research savvy, but which also encourages students to engage in the risk-taking required of leaders. Together we pose significant, original research questions. Students learn a variety of methods, instrumentation, and  data collection processes in seeking answers to these research questions. 

It is my hope that the research environment I provide helps students discover for themselves that they are creative — able to think of good questions and contribute ideas to the lab effort. I try to step back, allowing them to be the first to see the results of an experiment and have the satisfaction of making the original observation.

My goal is that they experience autonomy in their thinking while seeing how collaboration enhances scientific creativity and productivity, see the value of perseverance through the frustrations that often accompany conducting and trouble-shooting experiments, that they apply integrity and thoroughness in their work, and that they embrace how mistakes in the lab often provide for progress. Because we are asking original research questions, our results contribute to what is currently a very limited knowledge base regarding biology of Lumbriculus — our work together and our dissemination efforts through conference presentations and publications is benefiting the larger scientific community. Participation in research activities as an undergraduate also helps some students decide if research is an appropriate career path and enhances their chances of being accepted into graduate programs.