CASTLEMAN

CEE Junior Faculty Mentoring Program

The CEE Department proudly provides a formal junior faculty mentoring program that will prepare them to achieve their career goals appropriate to their respective appointment. This program is open to all Assistant ranks including Assistant Professor, Assistant Professor in Residence, and Assistant Research Professor. This mentoring program consists of two components, group workshops and individual formal mentor assignments. The CEE Department will provide support to the mentoring program through sponsoring external speakers as appropriate, facilitating access to resources and including mentoring as a service item for senior faculty.

Professor Vadas speaks to three professors at a conference table        Small group of CEE professors wearing masks while sitting at a conference table
Figures 1 and 2: CEE Mentoring Workshop #1 on 3/25/2022 about Teaching

Workshops

Every month, a 2-hour block, 30-40 minute presentation by lead faculty with another 1-2 faculty or invited guests present as the panel, followed by discussion is planned as a mentoring workshop. The topics include but are not limited to promotion, tenure, and reappointment (PTR), teaching, research portfolio, writing papers and proposals, student mentoring, advising, and building professional networks.

 

Personalized Mentoring

Volunteers from the Associate and Full Professors or Professors in Residence will form a CEE Mentoring Committee. The Department Head will match the best mentor-mentee pairs for an academic year. The mentoring committee will meet once a semester to discuss best practices for mentoring, share resources, and communicate what common questions/challenges they identify in junior faculty.

While each mentor-mentee can choose the frequency and duration of meetings, regularity and predictability are key features of a successful mentoring relationship. It is also suggested that meetings have the form of rudimentary minutes, with an agenda and actionable items included. The responsibilities of mentors and mentees are a time commitment, active participation, consideration, and professionalism. 

The foci of faculty mentoring should include guidance in multiple domains of career development and be adjusted depending on the type of appointment. These include, but may not be limited to 

  • Development of independent scholarship/research
  • Development of internal and external professional networks crucial to recognition as an independent scholar
  • Strategies for success and advancement within the institution, school, or department, with attention paid to formal as well as informal measures of success
  • Management of career challenges of particular relevance to women and underrepresented minority faculty