Mentoring Practices Proven to Broaden Participation in STEM Disciplines

Mentoring is the process of transferring knowledge from a person with more experience and expertise in a field (mentor) to a less experienced person (protégé or mentee) to help them grow personally and professionally. Mentoring has proven to be an effective mechanism for ensuring student success in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. Select mentoring programs for women, minorities, and underrepresented groups have shown significant gains in increasing the presence of students from various backgrounds in the STEM fields. The Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM) program recognizes both individuals and organizations that have successfully implemented mentoring activities that have helped minority students in STEM disciplines. Given the efficacy of their mentoring methods, PAESMEM recipients serve as a national resource for researching best practices in mentoring. Thus, in this research investigation PAESMEM recipients were analyzed to characterize effective strategies for mentoring minorities within STEM fields. Twenty-five randomly selected PAESMEM recipients were asked to participate in a descriptive research study designed to assess mentoring practices. The results of the survey reveal five practices that the majority of PAESMEM recipients identified as having performed “very well” in their own mentoring programs. These research results can inform recommendations for mentoring practices that should be implemented in future mentoring programs to help underrepresented groups successfully navigate STEM fields.