Undergrad Mentorship: Getting Started

The prospect of starting a new program can be daunting. If your lab is interested in starting a mentorship program, find another lab or two that is doing similar work, and is also interested in mentorship. This will help spread out the workload amongst mentors, and help to diversify the content. To help you get started, we have prepared a number of tips based on several years of program piloting. 

Program Recruitment 
  • The most motivated students who apply to your lab as research assistants will often want to learn more than the basics. The mentorship program is designed to give them additional skills and knowledge. These top research assistants should provide the bulk of your mentees. 
  • By providing your research assistants with advanced training, you are likely to have them stay with your lab for longer, and are able to assign them more responsibility. 
  • When developing this program with multiple labs in mind, we have found that 10-12 mentees is an ideal size for a cohort. This allows for the most motivated students to participate in the program, who are generally the ones who will have consistent attendance to this otherwise voluntary program. 
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Program Organization
  • We suggest designating a mentorship coordinator for your group, either a lab manager or graduate student, whose responsibility will be to:
    1. Recruit undergraduates to the program 
    2. Ensure that each week has a clear topic for meetings 
    3. Ensure that at least one senior lab member (graduate student, postdoc, or PI) will be present for each week. We suggest asking individuals to come to weeks that align with their research specialties, or to come to weeks in which their research assistants are presenting. 
  • Ideally, all senior lab members who have a research assistant in the program will be able to act as a mentor at least once per quarter. This work load should be spread out among as many lab members as possible. Mentors should attend meetings when the topic is related to their research speciality, or when their research assistant is presenting.  
  • Schedule topics for the whole quarter ahead of time, to give senior lab members plenty of time to plan their attendance.  
  • Plan a weekly meeting time for your program which will stay consistent for the whole school year. Undergrads  have less classes on Friday, and can tend to fit this program into their schedule if they know in advance. 

General tips ​
  • The first time your lab participates in this program will be the most amount of work; Future years can re-use and adapt material you've created. Your hard work will lay the foundation for many years of excellent training!
  • Keep this program light! It shouldn't be stressful for anyone involved. We recommend minimal out-of-class assignments. 
  • Many graduate students will use notebooks to keep track of their research ideas and scientific thoughts. We suggest providing your mentees with "science journals", and providing weekly prompts for them in order to encourage scientific thinking. Our mentees from the pilot program were eager to write in their journals, as well as discuss the topics with their graduate mentors. Some example topics include 
    • What type of data are you working with and how would you visualize it?
    • Describe a poster you have seen in the halls of CNS, CMB, Young, etc. that you liked and why?
    • Article summary: Why should I learn to code?
    • What do I want to be able to do with my coding skills?
    • Reflection on the quarter. What topics did you want to learn more about? What changes would you make to improve the experience for future mentees. 

Finally, we suggest that you utilize the 198 credit system in order to track your students and encourage attendance, While 199 credits are usually reserved for research assistants, 198 credits are reserved for directed group study. We recommend that you get in touch with your home department to set up a 198 course for your lab. As with standard 199 units, 198 units are generally assigned at 1 unit per 3 work hours a week. Here are some requirements that we have used for 198 course descriptions: ​
  • Trainees must attend mentorship meetings on at least 8/10 weeks 
  • Trainees must regularly participate in meetings and come to meetings prepared 
  • Trainees must write in their science journal each week (specifics don't matter, just actively think about science!)

Undergrad Mentorship: Sample Schedule

Through piloting and feedback, we have developed a multi-year sample program. The program is designed around weekly meetings, with a focus on certain skills each quarter. This schedule is meant to act as a guide for your lab to engage in their own mentorship program. This program timeline works best for sophomores, but can be adapted for juniors and seniors. 

Year 1 
  • Fall - Introduction to memory and plasticity concepts 
  • Winter - Accessing, organizing and presenting research (journal club)
  • Spring - Introduction to data (Excel basics) and data visualization 

Year 2
  • Fall - Introduction to programming
  • Winter - Professional development; Mock poster development and presentation; apply to a conference 
    • The Undergraduate Research Conference deadline is usually in February 
  • Spring -  Professional writing; Design independent study for year 3; Discuss grad school apps

Year 3 
  • Fall - Programming for independent study / honors thesis 
  • Winter - Data collection for independent study / honors thesis 
  • Spring - Write up independent study / honors thesis 
If you are a grad student, postdoc, or PI interested in started your own mentorship program, please contact Trevor Baer (tlbaer@ucdavis.edu) for additional guidance. ​