Career implications for college student mentors through their contribution to a climate film outreach program for adolescents

ABSTRACT

Mentorship has been shown to have a positive influence on mentees but less research is available on the impacts for mentors, particularly those involved in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) outreach. As we work to enhance STEM engagement through outreach programs that include mentoring, understanding the impact on mentors that participate in these programs has implications for program design and offers new avenues for effective mentor engagement. This study explored the impacts of mentoring on undergraduate film and graduate science students who served as mentors in an outreach program for middle and high school youth. In this outreach program, a participant-centered mentorship model was implemented, with mentors supporting students in creating films about local climate change impacts in their communities. The focus was put on interdisciplinary work and the development of communication and relationship building in teams of students and their mentors. Data were collected from the mentors through surveys and interviews. As a result of their participation, mentors experienced professional and personal benefits, such as building teaching and communication skills, developing relationships and networking connections, and personal satisfaction. Several mentors reported high, positive impacts that resulted in changes to their career paths towards STEM education. Mentors who reported moderate or low levels of impact may have had past mentoring experiences that moderated the impact. Based on these findings, we suggest that mentor career and skill development is considered in the development of outreach programs and mentor training to enhance the impact on mentors and their engagement in STEM.

KEYWORDS:

• Mentors
• mentorship
• outreach
• education
• informal science program

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge others who gave feedback and supported this work, including the mentors and students who participated in the LOCC program as well as the collaborators who worked on the LOCC program. We would also like to acknowledge the graphic designer of Figure 1, Ami Nacu-Schmidt, for her work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Human rights statements and informed consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1964 and its later amendments. Informed consent was obtained from all participants for being included in the study.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by NSF Division of Research on Learning [grant number DRL-1513320]; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [grant number NA17OAR4320101].