Mentorship is an essential catalytic factor of the success of trainees. As summarized in the recent NASEM report, The Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM, mentorship inculcates specific attributes in the mentee: research self-efficacy, development of a science identity (the sense of belonging to a particular social group and recognition as an accepted member) and positive outcome expectations (or the expectation that one is going to succeed in science). These attributes in turn promote the persistence and success of the mentee in the field. Historically, we have expected research mentors to acquire proficiency through trial and error, but the cost of this approach is high. Mentorship, like education, is a learnable skill.

Harvard’s new Core for Mentorship Excellence builds upon two decades of research conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s “Center for the Improvement in the Mentored Experience in Research” (CIMER). CIMER is the widely acknowledged thought leader in the didactics of mentorship training. CIMER’s “Entering Mentoring” curriculum has identified several key mentorship competencies: 1) aligning expectations, 2) effective communication, 3) assessing understanding,  4) fostering independence, 5) promoting professional development. To illustrate these competencies, Entering Mentoring uses case-based discussions to allow mentors to experience and experiment with various mentorship strategies. The curriculum also provides mentors with practical mentorship tools to implement in their own research environments, such as mentorship agreements. Harvard faculty, trained by CIMER, offer this day-long training to the Harvard community once per month.