Mentoring

In cooperation with the Community of Undergraduate Research Scholars (COURS), IGERT will support a limited number of students in IGERT research.  The idea is to give undergraduates a quality research experience and offer IGERT graduate students an opportunity for mentoring.  While supervising an undergraduate student is considerable work, the primary objectives are to help you with your research and give you the opportunity to mentor.

All IGERT Fellows are required to enroll in the mentoring course which is offered during fall semester, whether or not they are mentoring undergraduates. Undergraduates are required take a research course while being mentored by an IGERT Fellow.

• Undergraduates must be participants in the Academic Year COURS program, which involves enrolling in a Fall one-credit seminar and a Spring three-credit seminar.
• Students will be paid hourly for 10-15 hours per week, up to full time in summer.  Salary approximately $7 to $8/hr.
• Undergraduate students should have some professional interest in the project and some educational background of relevance.  We do not expect to hire gophers or dishwashers (although they can Go and Wash).
• Undergraduate students should be involved in the research and have a component of the work which they can “own.”
• A final poster product is required, which can be co-authored with you, but with them as first author (the COURS program culminates in a poster symposium and the student will have funding to attend a professional meeting to present the poster).
• Recruitment will be by local advertisement.  You will pick your student.
• Faculty should be involved in the REU (Research Experience for Undergraduate Students) plan and the integration of the three hierarchical levels.
• REU activity should be organized so that data collected are “your” data or shared data.
• You are not teaching a course, but involving an undergraduate in your research.
• The term of the REU is an academic year, but can be extended to the summer if funds are available.

Application

If you want to be involved in this program, you will need to write a description of how and why you will engage the undergraduate studentin your research activities.  Submit this statement to Dr Margaret Nelson (MNelson@asu.edu).  The intention is that the research project is related to the IGERT theme and to your dissertation research. A fun way to do this would be to explicitly involve the undergraduate in a collaborative effort.  Occasionally IGERT Fellow mentors will be required to participate in class sessions and/or workshops associated with the mentoring experience or to meet with Dr. Nelson to discuss the effectiveness of the experience.

There is a call for application each Spring.