For graduate students, navigating the changing world of academia while researching, writing a dissertation and working towards a degree can be difficult to face alone.
For Mary Stromberger, vice provost for graduate education and dean of the graduate school, her lack of a personal mentoring experience helped motivate her to relaunch the Ohio State Mentoring Initiative (OSMI) in the graduate school.
Stromberger was a first-generation student at West Chester University. When she decided to attend graduate school, Stromberger said she did not know what to expect and had no one to turn to for advice.
“It was definitely challenging at first, because you’re expected to be independent and you’re expected to figure it out, almost like that part is a test of how you’ll do as a scholar,” Stromberger said. “Research and figure it out.”
She said it would have been helpful to have had mentors to guide her through graduate school, to encourage her what to prioritize and how to advocate for herself.
The renewed mentoring initiative aims to make resources available for graduate students who need them, giving faculty the same opportunities as well to help them develop strong mentorship relationships, Stromberger said.
“We just wanted to make resources available to everyone so that there’d be greater equity in providing faculty with resources to help them be better mentors to graduate students and postdocs,” Stromberger said.