Thanks so much for visiting the NY-PUI Alliance’s AGEP Video. We welcome comments and questions on all aspects of our project! We are especially interested in learning more about the ways your projects have adapted during the pandemic, how similar or different they were from ours and how you expect to integrate programming that you developed during COVID into program activities moving forward, now that the “new normal” ahead is a bit clearer. Some questions we would love input on are:

• If you had to recruit and mentor students during COVID, what do you think of our approach? How does it compare to your efforts?
• How should programs decide which “tweaks” made during covid should be kept post-pandemic? 

• What successes or challenges have you encountered or would you expect to encounter moving from in-person to virtual, and potentially back to in-person?
• Were there any aspects of our programming you found valuable that you could use or adapt for your projects in the future?
• What tools and methods are you working with today that are different than 2019, to connect with and engage project participation in your efforts?

Thanks to Erica and the team. This is a great example of making the most of a bad situation. I appreciate that you are going to continue some of your remote collaboration approaches even after we return to in-person interaction.

I'm curious if there were practices you intended to pursue pre-lockdown that you realized could not be substituted online? Are there any "must haves" for mentoring that can only be accomplished face-to-face?

Thanks for your question, Barry. Part of our original plan was to provide our dissertators with in person micro-teaching experiences where, with guidance from their teaching mentors, they prepared for, planned and taught one or two classes and received feedback. Although they still completed their micro-teaching experiences, due to the lockdown, they weren't able to teach in person and ended up teaching virtually (both synchronously and asynchronously). Although this was interesting and valuable in its own right (and like you said-- making the best of a bad situation), it couldn't substitute for the experience of teaching live in front of a class.  Although the relationships the dissertators were able to form with their teaching mentors was solid across a virtual platform, something experiential-- like an observed, in person teaching opportunity-- was definitely difficult to substitute online. 

What an incredible way to use technology for distance learning/mentoring. The pandemic certainly challenged us to engage in what many think is the future of the workforce. As you rolled this program out virtually, what are the most impactful lessons you learned for engaging remote mentoring relationships? Would you have adopted a hybrid model if COVID had not happened?

Great work!!!

Margie,

Thank you for viewing our presentation and for your great questions. When we were locked down just as we were welcomed our new cohort to our project, we quickly realized that we could use  technological platform for several interventions, such as pedagogical workshops.

However, our mentoring component is central to our program and is based on theoretical constructs that depend on deep and robust professional bonding between mentors, team members and AGEP scholars. Initially, we were concerned that it might be difficult to ascertain best mentor-scholar matches as we depended on Zoom meetings to get to know the new scholars. We invested in developing probing interview questions and a friendly, conversational tone to convey our interest in the scholars as dissertators and as individuals. To date, it appears that our investment has paid off. AGEP scholars and mentors appear to have bonded successfully and the scholars have indicated they have learned a great deal about teaching and career paths.

Pre-COVID, we, like many others, considered that technology (email, etc) would complement in-person contact, not be the primary means of communication. Now we see that virtual meetings can have a place in our program as we forward. 

Nina Leonhardt, AGEP Coordinator, Suffolk County Community College 

This is so important that new PhDs see the importance pedagogy and see examples of how to do it. In particular the discussion of implicit bias and growth mindset is critical for future faculty. It will be interested to see how these dissertators take this experience into their future instruction. Will you be able to follow up with them later?

I know the focus for this year has been online teaching. But that might be a benefit in the long run because technologies like personal response systems have been very effective - but underused - in college classrooms.  Getting experience with these tools is beneficial for everyone.

I think the idea of pre-screening teaching and learning styles before matching the mentors is fantastic, we are working on mentoring in Chile and would love your input to our project. We focus first on women, but have done other under represented groups in STEM as well, and will do so in the future too, how can we do better? https://stemforall2021.videohall.com/presentati... we are preparing our mentors before hand but I see that also matching is a delicate art. Thanks for your video!

Sonia,

Thank you for viewing our video. Our project is focused on dissertator success, which requires that we understand them as individuals, scientists and emerging faculty. Hence, our emphasis on the matching process.

Thanks for sharing the link to your project in Chile. It is great to hear the girls tell their stories. Although it is difficult to identify  your   activities and interventions from the video, the comments and reply postings are very helpful 

You seem to have a great program.  Your participants  must overcome some of the same racial and cultural barriers the dissertators in our program are faced with. This is why we include implicit bias and growth mindset workshops for both mentors and mentees. Perhaps you might consider these topics for your program.

Wonderful presentation and very enlightening.