Faculty-to-Student Mentor Program

Succeed at USU

Utah State University (USU) Statewide Campuses invites all undergraduate students to participate in the Faculty-to-Student Mentoring Program. The goals of this program are to help students:

Mentor Icon
  1. Successfully adjust to university life.
  2. Feel like they are valued members of the university.
  3. Have a clear sense of purpose.
  4. Achieve their educational goals.

Faculty-Student Mentoring

@ USU Eastern

@ USU Salt Lake

@ USU Uintah Basin

How the Program Works

A faculty mentor will be personally matched to you to help with whatever challenges you might encounter in your journey toward reaching your academic and career goals. Faculty can offer students the following benefits:

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Academic Expertise. Faculty can help you by 1) giving practical suggestions for improving your academic performance; 2) supporting your commitment to learning; 3) encouraging you to discuss and share your academic problems and brainstorm solutions; 4) helping you set realistic goals and map out strategies for achieving them, and 5) helping you think critically about your long-term aspirations and goals. .

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Career Guidance. Faculty can assist you with your careers goals by 1) examining career options related to your field of study; 2) helping you reflect on competencies needed to achieve your goals 3) strategizing the quickest route to career success; 4) helping you network with professionals in your career field, and 5) helping you set realistic career goals and map out strategies to achieve these goals.

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Psychosocial Support. Faculty can support you psychosocially by 1) listening to your concerns; 2) providing moral support 3) identifying and addressing problems 4) connecting you with support services, and 5) providing encouragement.

We welcome and appreciate you being a part of this voluntary program, which provides you with access to faculty who care about your academic and career success. This program also offers the optional opportunity to participate in a related research study. You can participate in the mentoring program without participating in the research component.

If you are an interested in the program and would like more information or to apply, please click the applicable Student Mentee or Faculty Mentor box below.

Role

Your role as a student mentee is to consistently interact with your faculty mentor in a way that helps you achieve your educational goals. This means that you are willing to be open and honest with your mentor, that you respect your mentors' time, that you respond to contact, that you honor commitments, and that you are open to constructive feedback from your mentor.

Student Mentee Application

Meeting and Monthly Expectations

Note: Visits between mentors and mentees can occur face-to-face or virtually if there are geographical or social distancing limitations. Your total time commitment to participate in these meetings and providing monthly feedback is likely to take between 2 and 5 hours each fall and spring semester.

During your first meeting, you and your mentor will decide the frequency and modality of your interactions.  This can be revised as needed.  At minimum, you will be expected to meet with your mentor or have monthly contact based on the following:

  1. On your first visit, you will meet one-on-one with your mentor and complete the Mentor/Mentee Initial Meeting Guide.
  2. Each semester, you will meet face-to-face with your mentor at least twice. These meetings can be done one-on-one or in a group. 
  3. In months when you don’t visit face-to-face with your mentor, you will interact with them via email, text, or phone.
  4. Complete a monthly reflections survey of the program.

Expectations of Participating in the Research Component 

This mentoring program has an optional research component, USU IRB protocol #11217. You can participate in the mentoring program without participating in the research. The purpose of the research study is to evaluate if this program helps students adjust to university life and persist to graduation.  If you have questions about this research study, including the recruiting process, contact principal investigator David Law at 435-722-1716 or david.law@usu.edu. To be included in this study, student mentees must be a tuition paying undergraduate student, be at least 18 years of age or older, and enrolled in the USU statewide campus system. Your total time commitment to participate in the research component of this program is likely to take about 25-30 minutes the first semester you enroll and 15 minutes in following semesters. 

  1. As part of this research component, mentees will be expected to complete the following tasks:
  2. Understand and sign the informed consent document near the beginning of your first semester in the program. This should take about 10 minutes.
  3. Complete the mentee pre-survey near the beginning of the first semester you enroll in the program. This should take about 2 minutes.
  4. Complete the mentee post-survey during week 14 or 15 of the semester.  This should take about 15 minutes.
  5. Repeat step 4 in upcoming semesters.

Once you understand your role and expectations, complete the application form above. This form will let program administrators know if you do or do not want to participate in this mentoring program, and whether you want to participate in the research component. If you choose the research component, you will be further guided to complete the informed consent and mentee pre-survey assessment

Role

Your role as a faculty mentor is to help your student mentees:

  1. Successfully adjust to university life;
  2. Feel like they are valued members of the university;
  3. Have a clear sense of purpose; and
  4. Achieve their educational goals. 

Faculty Mentor Application

You will do this by providing your mentee with 1) Academic expertise; 2) Career guidance; and 3) Psychosocial support. Desired personality characteristics in a mentor include warmth, empathy, self-awareness, balance of demands, integrity, and honesty.  Desirable behavioral characteristics include productivity, respect by colleagues, effective communication, availability, and a history of mentoring. You will be provided guidelines and training about good mentoring practices from the USU Statewide Faculty-to-Student Mentoring Program Steering Committee, for example, how to have positive but realistic discussions about the rigors of college.  Each campus will support reasonable expenses for you to provide a quality mentoring experience for your assigned mentees.  You will determine the number of mentees you want to mentor. You will be asked to respond to contact in a timely manner. Your total time commitment to participate in this mentoring program each semester is likely to take between 5 and 15 hours.

Meeting Expectations

Note: Visits between you and your mentee can occur face-to-face or virtually if there are geographical or social distancing limitations. Your total time commitment to participate in this mentoring program and provide monthly feedback is likely to take between 3 and 13 hours each semester.

During your first meeting, you and your mentee will decide the frequency and modality of your interactions.  This can be revised as needed.  At  minimum, you will be expected to meet with your mentee/s or have monthly contact based on the following:

  1. On your first visit, you will meet one-on-one with your mentee and complete the Mentor/Mentee Initial Meeting Guide.
  2. During each semester, you will meet face-to-face with each of your mentees at least twice. These meetings can be done one-on-one or in a group.
  3. In months when you do not visit face-to-face with your mentee/s, interact with them via email, text, or phone.
  4. Complete a monthly reflections survey on each mentee (This should take about 2 minutes for each mentee).
  5. Attend recruiting and training events at your local campus.

Expectations of Participating in the Research Component 

This mentoring program has an optional research component, USU IRB protocol #11217. You can participate in the mentoring program without participating in the research. The purpose of the research study is to evaluate if this program helps students adjust to university life and persist to graduation. If you have questions about this research study, including the recruiting process, contact principal investigator David Law at 435-722-1716 or david.law@usu.edu. To be included in this study, mentors must be full-time or part-time faculty members at a USU statewide campus. Your total time commitment to participate in the research component of this program is likely to take about 25 minutes the first semester and about 15 minutes in following semesters.

As part of this research component, mentors will be expected to complete the following tasks

  1. Near the start of your first semester as a mentor, understand and sign the informed consent document. This should take about 10 minutes.
  2. Complete the mentor post-survey during week 14 or 15 of the semester. This should take about 15 minutes.
  3. Repeat step 2 in upcoming semesters.

Once you understand your role and expectations, complete the application form above. This form will let program administrators know if you do or do not want to participate in this mentoring program, and whether you want to participate in the research component. If you choose the research component, you will be further guided to complete the informed consent.