Few, if any, successful careers develop without mentoring. The large variety of roles along the way necessarily means that different mentors must play a role along the way. A 6th grade teacher, a high-school chess coach, a college research adviser, a peer, and a member of the National Academy of Science can each play a critical but different role to the success of a professor. For the lucky few, such mentors seemingly appear just at the right time. For most, and particularly for disadvantaged students, such mentors are hard to find. Given that the demographics of the academy remain far from those of our student body, we must also recognize that differences between mentors and mentees will naturally exist. Like in the compositions of modern atonal music, such differences can be used to advantage. We will discuss examples and suggestions for implementing mentoring structures deliberately.

Disadvantaged students: Mentors come in many shapes and notes

249th National Meeting (2015)

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