Virtual Mentoring During and After a Pandemic

Remote environments exacerbate and present new challenges in the mentoring process, as was the case during the COVID-19 pandemic. Even in the transition to the ‘new normal’, the COVID-19 pandemic and the move to remote activities continue to reshape undergraduate research. Mentoring during the pandemic revealed that students needed faculty to transcend their roles as professors, mentors, and role models. During this transition period, students will need help to manage crises, to find meaning in the midst of challenges, and will seek affirmation moving forward in their research work. This is a time to lead with empathy and embrace the ways in which we learned new ways of communication and productivity enhancement.

Empathy requires productive and safe spaces; that is, mentors must facilitate the understanding of the complexities and limitations of new learning in unfamiliar research environments. Times of upheaval and uncertainty redefine what it means to hold students accountable; offering students the benefit of the doubt acknowledges that they are doing their best with what support system exists in their new reality. As more institutions adopt hybrid and online delivery of education, mentors must apply the pandemic lessons learned to newly redefined academic settings.