Boston University Mentoring Training Program
Role Play Scenarios
QuittingMentee Perspective
My name is Angela. I am a graduate student in Industrial Engineering. But I am leaving. I’ve decided to drop out of graduate school – for so many reasons. To begin with, my advisor, Professor Hernandez, told me that I would have to take lower-level courses because my preparation at a historically black institution was not up to par. I found out that none of the other students had to do this. I also had a series of very discouraging in-class experiences. I was hoping for rapport with the faculty, but none of my professors ever calls on me or asks me to answer a question. They seem surprised when I raise my hand to participate. I was even accused of cheating once when I got an A on an exam. And my grades are mostly lower than average, even though I work as hard as my peers. Also, I was always left out of social events with the other students in the department. It’s hard to be black around here. I feel very isolated. Maybe in a few decades things will change, but I’m not going to stay around and be treated this way. I’m going to work in industry for a while. I’ll be more welcome there.
I let my advisor know by email that I was leaving, and he asked me to meet with him first to talk about it. I am about to see him now…
Getting into character…
Describe your character. I am …
What actions has your character taken and why? I have …
What is your character thinking and feeling? I think …
What are you going to try to achieve in the meeting to follow? My goal is to….
I will do this by…
QuittingMentor Perspective
My name is Professor Hernandez. I teach in the Industrial Engineering department at X University. One of my graduate students, Angela, sent me an email telling me she was dropping out of graduate school. I was surprised – this was the first I’ve heard that she was having problems and she always struck me as a bright student. I asked her to talk with me before she did anything official. Maybe we can work it out, whatever the problem is.
In the meantime, I took a look at her academic records. I was surprised to find that her performance was not outstanding. She took a course with me and did very well. But she received a number of B’s in important subjects. I had her take some lower-level courses, too, to bolster her skills for the more challenging classes. She came from a historically black undergraduate college with a science program less rigorous than ours. I figured the additional foundation classes might help her succeed in our program.
I want her to succeed! I don’t think our environment on campus is discriminatory. I’m Latin American, myself, and have never experienced discrimination here. But I imagine she might wish there were more women and African Americans in our department. I think it can feel lonely sometimes.
She’s at my door now…
Getting into character…
Describe your character. I am …
What actions has your character taken and why? I have …
What is your character thinking and feeling? I think …
What are you going to try to achieve in the meeting to follow? My goal is to….
I will do this by…
Gender Bias?Mentee Perspective
My name is Gisele. I am a PhD student in Chemistry. I am having a hard time with my advisor, Prof. Smith. I feel like he responds to me very minimally. He is politely indifferent toward me. At first I thought maybe it was because I was new. But I’ve been here almost a year now and things are not getting better. In the lab, he picks clear favorites – and I am not one of them.I have never been given major responsibilities in the lab, and I feel like he treats me with kid gloves. He seems to interact more freely and easily with other students. I don’t understand why he treats me differently.
By contrast, when I was an undergraduate, I got a lot of encouragement from my advisor. She supported my research and was genuinely interested in helping me grow as a scientist. My relationship with her was completely different – positive and transformative – which is probably what caused me to think that maybe I am not the problem here.
Last week I cautiously talked with the only other female graduate student in our lab. I learned that she also feels marginalized by the mentor –sort of invisible.We both feel passed over in terms of responsibilities and opportunities, and we’re concerned about the long term impact this may have on our careers.
Maybe I should say something? I am about to have my monthly meeting with Prof Smith…
Getting into character…
Describe your character. I am …
What actions has your character taken and why? I have …
What is your character thinking and feeling? I think …
What are you going to try to achieve in the meeting to follow? My goal is to….
I will do this by…
Gender Bias?Mentor Perspective
My name is Professor Smith. In addition to my teaching responsibilities, I run a chemistry lab at the university. This year I have ten grad students in my lab. They’re excellent. Most have been with me for several years, so we know each other and I can trust their work. I took on one first year graduate student this year, Gisele. I don’t know her very well yet. Unfortunately I’ve been too busy this year to spend as much time with her as I would like. I don’t like to rely on her for major projects, since I’m not sure yet about her skills, so I tend to fall back on the students I know best, who’ve have been in the lab longest and consistently demonstrated strong skills. It’s also a plus that my more senior students don’t need much instruction -- I know they’ll understand without my having to spend a lot of time going over the basics.
I meet with each student monthly. Gisele is next…
Getting into character…
Describe your character. I am …
What actions has your character taken and why? I have …
What is your character thinking and feeling? I think …
What are you going to try to achieve in the meeting to follow? My goal is to….
I will do this by…
Race and Culture ShockMentee Perspective
My name is Shaun. I came to this university because I got a full merit scholarship. I was looking forward to starting college in a new city, meeting new friends, learning. I ignored the fact that I would be among only 3% of black undergrads at this institution – that didn’t sink in until I arrived.
I came from a high school that was diverse, and I’m really laid back and cool with whites, blacks, Asians, Latinos, etc. So this place was a shock. My major is mechanical engineering – it’s full of white dudes. But what’s weird is being in a lecture hall or a crowded dining hall and being the only African American in the room.
And it seems like white people here ignore blacks. I get the feeling that they avoid hooking up or being friends with a black guy or girl because that would make them an outcast with other whites. So on the one hand, I am ignored, which makes me feel sort of invisible. But on the other hand, I also feel conspicuous, like I stand out because I am different and out of place here. I feel like faculty treat me differently from white kids, and because there’s so few of us here, so I feel pressure to represent all African Americans.
Since being at this college for a year and not seeing as many black girls as I would like, I realized that I’m also attracted to white girls, but it seems like white girls are not attracted to me. I’m 6’ and fit, I’m not ugly. But here at college, I have yet to go to a party, out to a bar, or on a date. I usually go to the dining hall alone, get my food and come back to my dorm.
I’ve never felt as isolated as I do here. I miss hanging out with friends, and I miss diversity. It’s lucky schoolwork comes easy to me, because my motivation has gone down the tubes. I don’t know but it seems like I’m wasting my time at this school.
Through my program, I was assigned to work with a peer mentor. He’s supposed to help me adjust academically and socially. I’m headed to meet with him now, and I’m not looking forward to it. What am I supposed to tell him? He can’t really help me…
Getting into character…
Describe your character. I am …
What actions has your character taken and why? I have …
What is your character thinking and feeling? I think …
What are you going to try to achieve in the meeting to follow? My goal is to…. And I will do this by…
Race and Culture ShockMentor Perspective
My name is Troy. I am a peer mentor for the First Year Experience program at my college. Each freshman in the program is assigned a peer mentor. I mentor five freshmen – I help them with time management and study strategies. I’m also supposed to help them adjust socially.
I try to do a good job. In some ways, I think I do. But I am concerned about one mentee in particular: Shaun. I’ve seen him a few times so far, and each time I see him he seems less happy. He’s smart and likeable. His classes seem to be going okay. But it’s like something is bothering him, and he doesn’t open up to me.
Shaun is African-American, and I get the feeling he’s used to a different environment. Our college is diverse in some ways, but the percentage of African-American students is low. I’ve thought about asking Shaun how he feels about this, but I worried that it might be insensitive or politically incorrect. Still, I can’t help but wonder how this is affecting his “first year experience.”
I am about to meet with Shaun. I want this meeting to go differently from our others. I want him to know that even though I don’t share his experiences, I can empathize. I want him to know he can trust me.
Getting into character…
Describe your character. I am …
What actions has your character taken and why? I have …
What is your character thinking and feeling? I think …
What are you going to try to achieve in the meeting to follow? My goal is to….
I will do this by…
Foreign vs. DomesticMentee Perspective
My name is Weili. I am a graduate student in Professor K’s lab. I applied to work for Professor K while I was still at a major foreign University. Professor K is top in the field, and I feel fortunate to be accepted to his lab and to be learning with his graduate students and postdocs.
But now I am worried. There have been a couple times he has asked me to run some tests or follow a particular research track and I got behind and didn’t complete them on time. When he asked me if I’d run them, I told him I had, and just needed to put the results in a format for the group meeting. I was embarrassed and angry with myself for not getting done what my professor had asked and I figured I would catch up and finish them soon. He kept after me, though, and tried to get me to admit that I hadn’t run the tests and talked about my culture and American culture and scientific integrity. Then I felt even worse. I really want to impress him. I’ve never had trouble with academics or lab work before. I don’t understand why this experience turning out to be a problem.
Now Prof. K wants a meeting to talk about why I didn’t complete [insert task], even though I said I did. This time, I just didn’t understand what I was supposed to do. I didn’t want to tell him I didn’t understand, partly because he explained it already and I should have understood, and partly because I don’t want to displease him – again.
Getting into character…
Describe your character. I am …
What actions has your character taken and why? I have …
What is your character thinking and feeling? I think …
What are you going to try to achieve in the meeting to follow? My goal is to….
I will do this by…
Foreign vs. Domestic Mentor Perspective
I am Professor K and I lead a research group that develops new imaging technology. The group is productive and everyone seems to get along well – but I have trouble with one graduate student, Weili. If I ask Weili to do a task, he usually simply nods in the affirmative. And usually, things go along fine, but sometimes the task doesn’t get done. I follow up, asking whether he ran into obstacles, or needs help, but he generally evades the question, gives some information about something else he has done, or even flat out tells me that he has, in fact, performed the task and will get me the results right away.
Does Weili think he is being polite or respectful by telling me he has performed a task that he has not in fact performed? Or did he not know how to do the task but thought it was unacceptable to ask me the appropriate questions to learn? I don’t know. When I ask, all I get is more evasive but generally polite, affirmative answers. I've also tried explaining to Weili that here, in America, it is much worse to say something that is untrue and that I and other faculty welcome well-considered objections or questions.
I’m not prejudiced! I have had other students from Weili’s country who were excellent scientists and did not shy away from stating their honest opinion. In fact, my first PhD graduate was a young woman from the same country, and she was absolutely brilliant, forthright, and assertive.
Despite all my efforts at openness, I don’t feel like I can get honest answers from Weili. How can I trust him if every question I ask is answered with "yes," and if he won’t tell me truthfully whether he has actually performed a given task?
Weili has been in my lab for a year now. I’ve have asked him to meet me after lab meeting today, to talk about why the latest research activity he was asked to complete is not done.
Getting into character…
Describe your character. I am …
What actions has your character taken and why? I have …
What is your character thinking and feeling? I think …
What are you going to try to achieve in the meeting to follow? My goal is to….
I will do this by…
Pub NightsMentee Perspective
My name is Isabel. I'm a postdoc in Professor S’s lab, and I've recently realized how weak my bond is with Professor S. compared to the bond he shares with other (mostly male) postdocs and grad students in the lab. They joke throughout the day and banter about many outside-work interests. They also go out eating/drinking on a regular basis, watch sports and talk about typical male-oriented subjects. Then there are these annual outings to ski or canoe, with a large group of spouses and girlfriends. I went once and hated it. For the pub nights, they used to invite me to join them, but I hardly ever accepted and now they’ve stopped asking me. That’s not how I want to spend my small amount spare time. But now I feel like this is hurting my future career.
Intellectually, I believe I have more in common with my mentor than his other postdocs and grad students, but that doesn't seem to make a difference. He’s more likely to discuss science ideas and new papers with them. He helps them write grant proposals to advance their careers. He introduces them to colleagues and involves them in discussions. Even if it is not his intention to exclude some of us, that’s what is happening to me.I don't see how this could not translate into fewer opportunities for me. It’s beginning to feel like it’s a popularity contest here -- and I’m losing.
Last week a few of us attended a local conference with Professor S. Every step of the way, I felt like I was on the periphery. When I needed to be introduced to people at meeting following talks or in the hallway, I was not. I became upset, and returned to the lab. He’s asked me to meet with him in his office now to discuss my actions. And I’m not sure what to say.
Getting into character…
Describe your character. I am …
What actions has your character taken and why? I have …
What is your character thinking and feeling? I think …
What are you going to try to achieve in the meeting to follow? My goal is to…. And I will do this by…
Pub NightsMentor Perspective
My name is Professor S. I head a physics/engineering lab at a major research university. I like to be available to my grad students and postdocs, so I have an open-door policy and I also try to get into the lab at least once a day for an hour or so. I’m really happy with my current team, they’re a great group – talented and hard working. I like to build camaraderie by having everyone over for a barbecue twice a year. I also tag along on pub nights with the group when I have time – it’s a good way to connect with and get to know each other. Not everyone in the lab comes along, of course, but most do -- and everyone is welcome! Once a year, the lab organizes a weekend outing. We’ve been to Cape Cod, New Hampshire and Maine; we’ve gone hiking, canoeing and skiing. These outings are all social, with some science discussion, but not much. Most attend, and most bring significant others.
I really enjoy hanging out with my students. I make an effort to be equally accessible and supportive of all my students, or so I thought.
Last week I took a several students and a post doc to a local conference. I made a point of including Isabel. She’s a good researcher, but reluctant to socialize, so I don’t know her as well as most of my group. I knew she would get a lot out of the conference. But the next thing I knew she was sulking – and then she was gone! I figured she’d gone off by herself, but then I found out she had returned to the lab, having left the conference. I was really annoyed. I set up an appointment to find out why she took off – this meeting starts in a few minutes…