Mentoring Symposium

  
Details for the 2019 Mentoring Symposium will be posted soon.

For resources, visit the Mentoring Academy web page.

2018 Mentoring Symposium

The 2018 Mentoring Symposium was held on Tuesday, November 27, 2018, from 9 a.m - 3 p.m., in the University Library. Find out more about the topics addressed at the Symposium:

There are well-documented best practices that increase the likelihood of a successful mentoring relationship. By integrating these elements into the mentoring relationship, both mentors and mentees accrue benefits and are more likely to achieve their desired goals and outcomes. This session will introduce the elements of good mentoring as well as common benefits and outcomes of successful mentoring relationships.

Breakout Session 1: Maintaining Effective Communication
Good communication is a key element of any relationship, and a mentoring relationship is no exception. It is critical that mentors and mentees reflect upon and identify characteristics of effective communication and take time to practice communication skills within their mentoring relationship. This session will provide guidance on developing and maintaining effective communication.

Breakout Session 2: Aligning Expectations
A shared understanding of what each person expects is critical to establishing effective mentor-mentee relationships. Challenges arise when mentors and mentees have misunderstandings about expectations in the relationship, which naturally changes over time. Therefore, ongoing reflection and communication about expectations is needed to maintain positive and productive mentor-mentee relationships.

Diversity, along a range of dimensions, offers both challenges and opportunities to any relationship. Learning to identify, reflect upon, learn from, and engage with diverse perspectives is critical to forming and maintaining an effective mentoring relationship, as well as a vibrant learning environment. In this session, participants will considering how to foster an equitable and inclusive environment where everyone can do their best learning and create the highest quality of research, both because of and in spite of their diverse perspectives.

Reflecting on your mentoring relationships is a vital part of becoming a more effective mentor. This session will guide you in integrating what you’ve learned today with personal reflection to consider how to implement changes in your mentoring practice and to articulate your personal mentoring philosophy.

The IU Indianapolis Mentoring Symposium was intentionally designed as a hands-on and interactive learning experience that covers relevant topics and introduces critical concepts to foster and sustain effective mentoring relationships. Therefore, it is important to help Symposium participants “unpack” the rich content of the day and begin to reflect on next steps. This session will allow the panel of presenters a chance to share with the diverse Symposium participants how the information presented connects to their mentoring relationships, the many mentoring programs, and other opportunities available at IU Indianapolis and beyond. Suggestions will be offered on ways to integrate what was learned to get the most out of diverse mentoring experiences.