The Advising Project works with graduate programs to host mentor training and workshops for faculty and mentoring-up workshops for students. The Project also partners with GSAS groups and offices to co-sponsor and promote advising-related events. Below are examples of upcoming and past workshops the Project has hosted.
Are you a faculty member associated with one of the Harvard Integrated Life Sciences (HILS) graduate programs? HILS is now offering Faculty Mentor Workshops through the Harvard Training Portal!
Recent Workshops
August 2021
Using the Research of “Mentoring Up” to Optimize Your Skills as a Mentee
The Advising Project offered an interactive session focused on optimizing mentoring for incoming graduate students as part of a departmental graduate student orientation program. Reba Rosenberg, PhD ‘08, Karina Gonzalez Herrera, PhD ’18, and Marjorie Oettinger, PhD presented national models for mentor and mentee training and evidence of their effectiveness, introduced participants to resources available for mentor and mentee education including the report from the National Academies, and engaged in discussions of ways to optimize their mentoring practices focusing effective communication, aligning expectations, and diversity, inclusion, and belonging.
May 2021
Entering Mentoring, for Faculty Advisors in the Arts and Humanities and the Social Sciences
The Advising Project, in collaboration with CIMER, hosted a research mentor workshop for advisors of GSAS students in the arts and humanities and in the social sciences. In this interactive workshop, faculty examined, shared, and strengthened their mentoring practices. The event was the first to use a new curriculum developed by The Advising Project and CIMER and adapted from CIMER’s Entering Mentoring curriculum and was co-facilitated by Reba Rosenberg, PhD ’08, of The Advising Project and Dr. Bruce Birren of CIMER.
This event aimed to enhance knowledge and skills across a range of competencies, including:
- Maintaining Effective Communication
- Aligning Expectations
- Addressing Equity and Inclusion
- Fostering Independence
- Promoting Professional Development
- Fostering Well-being
- Articulating Your Mentoring Philosophy and Plan
March 2021
Using the Research of “Mentoring Up” to Optimize Your Skills as a Mentee
The Advising Project facilitated an interactive departmental workshop for graduate students that focused on developing skills to proactively manage their mentoring relationships. Grace Gill, PhD ’89, Karina Gonzalez Herrera, PhD ’16, and Reba Rosenberg, PhD ’08, presented national models for mentorship training and evidence of their effectiveness, introduced participants to resources available for mentor and mentee education, including the report from the National Academies, and engaged in discussions of ways to optimize their mentee practices focusing on effective communication and aligning expectations.
Cracking the Culture Around Careers
On March 30, 2021, The Advising Project co-sponsored a panel discussion with the Mignone Center for Career Success to discuss the value of the PhD throughout the world of work and tackle the remaining taboo around pursuing “alternative” careers. Speakers included GSAS alumni working at Harvard University Press and McKinsey & Company, as well as current Harvard faculty who produced successful projects in the arts beyond their main areas of research.
January, March, June, and July 2021, and August and November 2020, and August 2019
Entering Mentoring Workshops for Advisors of Phd Students in the Life Sciences
The Advising Project hosted a series of highly interactive research mentor workshops beginning in August 2019, that provided faculty the opportunity to examine, share, and strengthen their mentoring practices. The events were based on the Entering Mentoring curriculum developed by the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER) and co-facilitated by Grace Gill, PhD ’89, Reba Rosenberg, PhD ’08, Roz Segal, PhD, David Van Vactor, PhD, and by CIMER colleagues Bruce Birren, PhD, and Christine Pfund, PhD, Director of CIMER.
These events aimed to enhance knowledge and skills across a range of competencies, including:
- Maintaining Effective Communication
- Aligning Expectations
- Addressing Equity and Inclusion
- Fostering Independence
- Promoting Professional Development
- Fostering Well-being
- Articulating Your Mentoring Philosophy and Plan
February 2021
Job Search in Challenging Times: Faculty Perspective
The Advising Project co-sponsored a Mignone Center for Career Success event for graduate students on how to talk to advisors about future academic and non-academic careers. A panel of faculty offered ideas and fielded questions from students about how to broach the topics with advisors, the importance of exploring multiple career options, and how advisors can best support students’ needs.
October 2020
Using the Research of Effective Mentorship to Optimize Your Mentoring Practice
The Advising Project director Reba Rosenberg, PhD, ‘08, led a tailored graduate department faculty meeting on optimizing mentoring. In the interactive session, national models for mentor and mentee training and evidence of their effectiveness were discussed, and participants were introduced to resources available for mentor and mentee education including the report from the National Academies. Faculty engaged in discussions of ways to optimize their mentoring practices focusing on effective communication and aligning expectations.
August 2020
Using the Research of “Mentoring Up” to Optimize Your Skills as a Mentee
The Advising Project offered an interactive session focused on optimizing mentoring for incoming and second-year graduate students as part of a departmental graduate student orientation program. Grace Gill, PhD ’89, Karina Gonzalez Herrera, PhD ’18, and Reba Rosenberg, PhD ’08, presented national models for mentor and mentee training and evidence of their effectiveness, introduced participants to resources available for mentor and mentee education including the report from the National Academies, and engaged in discussions of ways to optimize their mentoring practices focusing effective communication, aligning expectations, and diversity, inclusion, and belonging.
January 2020
Using the Research of Effective Mentorship to Optimize Your Mentoring Practice
The Advising Project and CIMER, hosted seminars on both Longwood and Cambridge Campuses by Christine Pfund, PhD. Dr. Pfund is a senior scientist with the Wisconsin Center for Education Research and the Department of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) and director of CIMER. She is a member of the National Academies committee that recently published the consensus report and online guide, The Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM. In these interactive sessions, participants learned about national models for mentor and mentee training and evidence of their effectiveness, engaged in discussions of ways to optimize their mentoring practices, and explored resources available for mentor and mentee education including the newly released report from the National Academies.
January 2019
Mentoring in the Arts and Sciences
A half-day retreat on mentoring for faculty across GSAS was facilitated by CIMER leaders and NASEM report co-authors Christine Pfund, PhD and Angela Winston-Byars, PhD. Scholarship on mentorship was discussed, and facilitators presented national models for mentor and mentee training and evidence of their effectiveness, introduced participants to resources available for mentor and mentee education, and engaged in interactive discussions of ways to optimize their mentoring practices. Dr. Pfund and Dr. Winston-Byars also facilitated a retreat for faculty in the Department of Government presenting and discussing research on mentoring and introducing resources and tools for effective mentorship practices.
Contact Info
For more information about these events or to express interest in scheduling a new event, please email TheAdvisingProject@fas.harvard.edu.