Introduction

This introduction provides useful context for faculty mentoring students in undergraduate research at New York City College of Technology (City Tech) of the City University of New York. City Tech is the largest public senior-level college of technology in New York State and serves over 13,000 students. Approximately 43% of the student body originates from outside of the United States, representing 127 countries (City Tech, 2023). Because of its diverse student population, it is designated as both a Hispanic Serving Institution as well as a Minority Serving Institution. City Tech is located alongside numerous public and private colleges and business start-ups in Brooklyn’s downtown area, known as the Brooklyn Tech Triangle, and has helped the area to flourish with STEM-focused activities. The College’s participation in mentorship-based undergraduate research activities represents an important component in the landscape of New York City’s fecund educational resources.

City Tech’s Mentoring Philosophy

In academia, undergraduate research mentoring is widely accepted as a well-established, high-impact practice across institutions of all stripes. The prevalence of the mentoring model is due in no small part to its versatility and effectiveness within a broad spectrum of institutional contexts. A traditional liberal arts college may employ forms of mentoring whose primary objective is to foster student development that successfully moves the undergraduate to the next academic level, most often graduate or professional schools. Alternatively, apprenticeship-based mentoring may work well as an integrated component of vocational education in a community college setting. Likewise, mentoring at City Tech holds a unique institutional perspective. As the designated college of technology of the City University of New York, the City Tech Mission Statement is clear that it is “committed to providing broad access to high quality technological and professional education for a diverse urban population. City Tech’s distinctive emphasis on applied skills and place-based learning built upon a vibrant general education foundation equips students with both problem-solving skills and an understanding of the social contexts of technology.”

The bi-level structure of the College, currently bearing more than 50 baccalaureate, associate and certificate programs spanning a broad array of disciplines, presents exciting opportunities and challenges for mentoring. The College is a rich academic milieu that is highly distinctive: our student body is exceptionally diverse and we are based in New York City, one of the world’s great cities. Mentoring has adapted to City Tech’s unique institutional context and assumes many variations across schools, departments, disciplines, and programs. Baccalaureate programs, for instance, may employ conventional long-term mentoring strategies (from a student’s freshman to senior year) while associate degree and certificate programs necessarily focus on shorter term, semester-based outcomes. Additionally, it is not unusual to find students entering mentoring experiences with faculty “outside” of their chosen programs. This is especially evident within the School of Arts and Sciences where in concert with its own degree programs, it services both the School of Technology and Design and the School of Professional Studies by providing the requisite general education (Gen Ed) curriculum developed and delivered City Tech style by faculty who collaborate on interdisciplinary themes. The result is often a unique juxtaposition of disciplines, with, for example, biology faculty mentoring radiologic technology students or English professors engaging aspiring dental hygienists in literature research projects. Such situations challenge the faculty mentor to develop Gen Ed approaches that foster student development in ethics, knowledge, and skills that can translate well into the students’ chosen major and subsequent career path; these situations are also designed to serve the students well in everyday life. Inter- or cross-disciplinary design can be a natural breeding ground for growing meaningful cross-disciplinary collaboration and interactions among programs, departments, and schools. Taken together, the uniqueness of City Tech’s mission, its structural organization, and its vibrant community of students and faculty can serve as a fertile institutional incubator for the development of typical examples of the Undergraduate Research Committee’s (URC) approach to mentoring.

For several years the URC has been systematically engaging faculty in identifying, understanding, and using effective mentoring practices. These years of developing URC’s approach to mentoring have culminated in the production of this Handbook. The Handbook was designed and developed to facilitate and to clarify the mentor-mentee relationship. It is intended to aid in the holistic design and implementation of a mentoring program. Both mentor and mentee will find the Handbook explicit, direct, and user-friendly. The nuances and challenges of mentoring are uniquely addressed in a plethora of case studies that are intended to provide guidance and pathways to solutions. We hope that the Handbook not only advances the mentoring paradigm, but also demystifies the mentoring journey. Effective communication skills and cultural sensitivity on the mentor’s part are key elements for mentoring success. Conscious effort is made in the Handbook to address issues of respect for ethnic and cultural diversity. Finally, we have designed the Handbook to be useful for both new and seasoned faculty members: the first-time mentor will have a valuable guide to begin the mentoring process, while the experienced mentor will have an asset to fine-tune mentoring strategies.