Recently, I mentored three undergraduate research students who graduated and went on to pursue graduate degrees and professional work. Through our mentoring relationships, which deepened over several years and involved navigating numerous unexpected challenges throughout the pandemic, I strove to…

Making College “Worth It” – Season 1, Episode 6 In this episode, we visit with Helen Walkington, Professor of Higher Education at Oxford Brookes University, UK, and Eric Hall, professor of exercise science at Elon University, about the salient practices…

The transition from high school to university is often a challenging one that includes many adjustments. This transition can be especially challenging when an undergraduate or graduate student moves to another country and/or continent for their education. Studying in a…

60-Second SoTL – Episode 45 This week’s episode shares an open-access article from New Directions in Teaching and Learning and examines how U.S.-based colleges and universities support mentoring of undergraduate research in global contexts: Cruz, Laura, Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler, Eric E. Hall, Amy L….

Infants’ first attempts in learning to walk are characterized by enthusiastic, wholehearted, but unbalanced steps that frequently result in many falls. Learning this novel skill is influenced by the child’s developmental history, or prior experiences, such as being held in…

Polar bears and their mothers have a unique relationship throughout their development. Research has shown that a polar bear cub stays with its mother as it develops, but it is left alone to fend for itself after two years (“When…

I grew up on a mountainside in rural Appalachia and spent nearly every day of my childhood playing outside. Being from a low-income family and surrounded by the natural world, I entertained myself by exploring plants, animals, soil, water, and…

60-Second SoTL – Episode 24 This week’s episode features an open-access article from the Journal of Further and Higher Education and examines how relational supports and peer mentors can improve access to university for students from marginalized communities: McNally, Sinéad, Paul Downes, Laura…

60-Second SoTL – Episode 14 This week’s episode features an article from the Journal on Excellence in College Teaching and explores how faculty and staff support learning and development when they mentor undergraduate research in global contexts: Cruz, Laura, Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler, Amy L….

Mentoring relationships develop in relationship-rich environments (Vandermaas-Peeler and Moore 2022). In higher education contexts, they might evolve from other meaningful relationships like teaching, advising, supervising, and coaching, but they require time to become more reciprocal and mutually beneficial (Mullen and…