Be a McNair Mentor!
Interested faculty members must submit applications containing:
- a brief description of their research interests
- a condensed two or three page curriculum vita
- and an indication of their planned level of involvement with the students
- Students can request a mentor application be sent to their proposed mentor.
- Or, a mentor may submit a mentor application directly.
The McNair Faculty Advisory Committee will review and approve the applications. Applicants should have expertise in their fields of study and be involved with students from the eligible pool. Faculty mentors must agree that they will work closely with undergraduate students in both planning and completing projects. Students should be encouraged to use state of the art techniques to answer important questions relevant to their academic disciplines.
Within the course of the year, mentors perform the following responsibilities:
- Meet with the intern weekly (daily if research is in summer)
- Develop intern’s research/scholarship skills
- Supervise activities, assign tasks for the intern, sign bi-weekly time sheets
- Provide motivation, support and direction for the intern
- Take the intern to a professional conference
- Assist the intern with the following: research proposals, conference itineraries and vouchers, oral and poster presentations, research papers
- Evaluate the intern’s research proposal, literature review, research paper, mid-term and overall performance, as well as the program’s effectiveness.
Typical activities for McNair Mentors include involving the student in the day to day operations of their research program, directing the intern to appropriate seminars, helping the student make contacts with appropriate graduate schools and programs, introducing the student to pertinent professional organizations, involving the student in reviewing manuscripts and grant proposals, pointing out readings with which the student should be familiar, helping the student structure a curriculum vita for inclusion in a graduate school application, and encouraging the student to think critically, ask questions, express opinions, respect different points of view.
