Faculty and Student Research Cohorts: Professionalization and Mentoring through a Sense of Community

In Summer 2022, FGCU’s Whitaker Center for STEM Education envisioned a community of student and faculty researchers who could support each other professionally, while developing research, mentorship, and professional skills. For students, this would be helpful as they complete their research projects, graduate, and enter into the workplace. For faculty mentors, it was an opportunity to develop as guides for our students by digging into what we expect of undergraduate researchers and how we might best support them. After a hiatus in Summer 2023, we are reigniting the effort in Fall 2024. This talk focuses on then and now. It will outline the Summer 2022 syllabus of activities for both the faculty and the students. By reflecting on the successes and missed opportunities, the talk will transition to its reiteration for Fall 2024. We will highlight the changes being made and pay particular attention to the cohort survey developed for this iteration. We aim to use the survey to meet the needs of this cohort while at the same time developing a lasting sense of community. Through an exploration of undergraduate research mentorship, we hope that the students can feel better equipped to complete their research, and that the faculty can feel better equipped to support the students and, in turn, share the best practices they have learned with other faculty. The objective of this talk will be to garner insights from other institutions about their attempts to create student and faculty research cohorts and how their efforts furthered the professionalization of students while empowering faculty as mentors.