Training Early Academic Mentors (TEAM) Program
As a mentee in academia, we all hope for "good" mentors, but what does that mean and how can we learn to be a skilled mentor? Training Early Academic Mentors (TEAM) is a new 1-year program that is offered by the Institute for Clinical Research Education and is designed to increase the knowledge, skills, and practice of mentoring among new mentors. The program was launched in January 2012.
Program Structure
The program will hold 90-minute group meetings at 12:00 noon four times a year. At these meetings, panels of experienced mentors will discuss common mentoring-related challenges, skills, and knowledge, such as:
- Giving feedback (timely, specific, in-depth, and constructive).
- Clarifying and articulating mutually agreed expectations for mentor and mentee.
- Providing an appropriate level of autonomy for the mentee and adjusting the level as the mentee develops.
- Awareness of institutional resources.
- Setting boundaries (time, relationship, and sphere of research).
- Balancing the mentor's and mentee's needs.
During each meeting, you will have time to discuss your own experiences pertaining to the meeting's topics and to seek feedback and advice from your peers and others.
You will be expected to meet with your master mentor every other month. Your master mentor may be your scientific mentor if you have one, or he or she could be any other senior faculty member who has extensive mentoring experience and an established relationship with you. If you have no mentor, the program can pair you with an accomplished mentor. Your master mentor is intended to serve as a mentoring role model, providing support for problem solving and also offering advice and feedback. He or she will help you define, follow, and implement your mentoring strategic plan throughout the program.
The program will also have a group orientation in January, a mid-program meeting in July, and a post-program closing meeting in December.
Materials
As part of the program, you will have the opportunity to customize, from our templates, documents that will help you work with your mentees, such as:
- Orientation pages.
- Contracts.
- Expectations.
- Milestones.
- Performance appraisals.
- Samples of grant proposals, manuscripts, posters, oral presentations, and articles about the preparation of these items for teaching purposes.
To access these materials, click here.
The program will help you write a mentoring strategic plan, will provide you with case studies on mentoring dilemmas, and will encourage you to read some of the articles about mentoring listed here. In addition, the program will help you plan for productive meetings with your master mentor.
Eligibility
The program is open to individuals who:
- Are assistant or associate professors at the University of Pittsburgh.
- Are currently serving as research mentors to at least one trainee.
- Have a master mentor or are willing to be paired with a master mentor who will make a commitment to the program candidate and his or her participation in TEAM.
- Are committed to participating in program activities.
Expected Outcomes
By the end of the TEAM Program, you will have a "toolkit" of mentoring documents that will help articulate and clarify your mentoring styles and expectations. You will have knowledge of common mentoring challenges and mistakes and will be familiar with strategies to overcome and avoid them. You will also have improved or established a relationship with a senior mentor who can provide you with advice on mentoring as needed after the program ends.
Application
Applications are accepted annually in November. If you have questions, please address them to Georgeanna Robinson, EdD.
