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Each applicant must identify and secure a mentor on their own. This mentor, referred to as the GC Mentor, is someone who is willing to guide the applicant throughout their entire time within the Grand Challenges Scholars Program (GCSP). The applicant should obtain the mentor’s support and commitment during the application process by requesting that the mentor review the student’s application prior to submission. Once admitted into the program, GC Scholars are expected to regularly meet with their mentor (a minimum of once every semester) to (re)set goals for developing core competencies, to track progress, and to discuss any updates to plans or goals. The ultimate outcome of the mentor-mentee relationship is for the GC Scholar to obtain the advising, guidance, and feedback necessary to produce a curated portfolio or body of work that demonstrates consistent, progressive development along all five core competencies by graduation.

Who Can Be A Mentor?

Examples of potential mentors may include:

• Undergraduate Research Mentor (for tips on finding a research mentor, click here.
• Faculty researchers in any engineering department are eligible.
• Faculty outside of College of Engineering whose research is related to the Grand Challenges (see Multidisciplinary Competency). For example, the Chancellor’s Faculty Excellence Program brings world-class faculty together into clusters from diverse fields for interdisciplinary research around society’s Grand Challenges. Try finding faculty clusters that are related to your Grand Challenge of interest.
• Your assigned engineering academic advisor or departmental coordinator of advising
• Any faculty, staff, postdoc, or graduate student with whom you have a positive relationship and can help hold you accountable

For Applicants Without a Mentor Yet

Students who have not yet identified a GC Mentor may apply for provisional acceptance into the GCSP. The program strongly believes that faculty mentorship is essential and is committed to assisting students in need. Therefore, current GC Scholars will provide assistance to new GC Scholars to find a mentor within a maximum of two (2) semesters.

While the program may provide assistance, it is the responsibility of each GC Scholar to find their GC Mentor. If GC Scholars are unable to obtain support from a GC Mentor within two (2) semesters, then those GC Scholars will be dismissed from the program and will no longer receive allocated funding from the Engineering Your Experience (EYE) program.

Specific Duties and Responsibilities

• The GC Mentor agrees to coach and guide the GC Scholar on the development of core competencies and completion of their final portfolio

• Review the student’s initial application to program, which serves as a benchmark for the portfolio
• Meet at least once every semester to review the student’s progress and to guide students in planning next semester’s goals. Meeting more often is highly encouraged but not required.
• Recommend and approve planned experiences for their GC Scholar that will advance competencies and meet set goals

• The GC Mentor will evaluate the GC Scholar’s curated portfolio and provide feedback using provided rubrics

Coaching Scholars to Develop Core Competencies and to Curate Portfolio

Students are expected to exercise introspection and self-determination throughout their journey as a Grand Challenges Scholar. Scholars need to be responsible for curating a portfolio of experiences that they believe will help them gain knowledge, acquire skill sets, and foster abilities that will sufficiently develop the core competencies of this program. However, mentors provide guidance during the scholar’s exploration and decision-making processes, which may include honest feedback, constructive criticism, encouragement, professional insight, or simply words of wisdom.

In the beginning scholars and mentors meet to determine the benchmark for evaluation. Based upon rubrics for the core competencies, what are the scholar’s baseline competencies? Where does the scholar already demonstrate applied knowledge, skills, and abilities related to the core competencies? Where are there areas for improvement? This first step is important because these first data points determine how growth and maturity along the core competencies will be gauged.

Subsequent meetings between mentors and scholars are meant to track progress toward developing core competencies and, as needed, to devise (or revise) plans for continued development. For example, mentors may suggest certain courses, activities, opportunities, or resources (e.g. a pitch competition for designing portable renewable energy sources) to their scholar based upon their Grand Challenges of interest (e.g. sustainability or making solar energy economical) and/or core competencies needing development (e.g. entrepreneurship and viable business model). While the scholar engages in self-reflection and reports their internalized learning as well as their sense of confidence, the mentor serves an external observer of the scholar’s behaviors and attitudes and can either validate the scholar’s growing competency or provide objective feedback for the scholar to consider.

As conversations are had and progress is monitored, the scholar is responsible for curating artifacts for their portfolio that demonstrate competencies. Mentors should ask scholars about what they intend to include in their portfolios and help scholars consider whether curated artifacts sufficiently represent achieved competencies.

Considering Relevance and Depth for the Portfolio

A completed portfolio must address the Scholar’s development in all five required competencies for depth relevant to their chosen Grand Challenge. Competency is based upon demonstrated skills, application of knowledge, abilities to perform, and observable behaviors that extend from values held with increasing proficiency from novice to adept. Scholars can demonstrate sufficient depth by grappling with the complexities, nuances, and realities associated with the Grand Challenges and then proposing clear, articulate ideas and solutions. The program provides rubrics for Scholars and their GC Mentors to assess rigor and track development along each one of the core competencies.

For depth, students are expected to achieve depth in three competencies, with the Talent and Multidisciplinary competencies as two of the three mandatory for all GC Scholars. For depth in a third competency, Scholars must choose any one from the three remaining (Entrepreneurship, Social Consciousness, or Multicultural) to demonstrate competency at the “Skillful” level. Scholars can demonstrate depth by achieving the “Emerging” level in the two remaining competencies. Scholars must coherently justify how they have developed competencies in depth and how that development is substantially relevant to enhancing their understanding of their Grand Challenge of choice or to advance solutions to that Grand Challenge.

Rubrics for Core Competencies

NIH Scientific Workforce Diversity (SWD) Toolkit PDF

 

Our rubrics for core competencies are based upon the VALUE Rubrics published by the Association of American Colleges & Universities.

Duties and Responsibilities Outside the Scope of the Mentor

• Expertise in one or all fourteen of the Grand Challenges is not required. However, whenever possible, selection of mentors with expertise is recommended.
• GC Mentors should refer GC Scholars to their assigned advisors in their engineering majors unless the mentor is also qualified to provide academic advising.