In his 25^th year with the Providence College biology department, Professor Jack Costello reflects on the experience, saying, “I’ve really been mentoring students the whole time.”

However, he adds, “What happened in the last five years is that Rhode Island NSF EPSCoR developed a system for mentoring students during the summer. EPSCoR formalized the mentoring and added depth to what I already was doing.”

Costello, whose area of focus lies in zooplankton ecology and animal-fluid interactions, has mentored about four students in the past five years through the EPSCoR Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program.

The program, Costello says, adds structure to the mentoring experience through activities and seminars designed to develop the professional latitude of the students.

At the same time, Costello says mentors gain from the experience: “Personally, I enjoy the mentoring. It’s rewarding to see students learning about a world they didn’t know existed. But, professionally, I also get a lot out of it because of the work that we do together. Many of my publications, I have students as co-authors.”

At Salve Regina University, Associate Professor J.D. Swanson finds mentoring equally beneficial and draws enthusiasm from the experience. His area of interest focuses on how cells grow and develop, particularly how they communicate to build precise structures.

“The students invigorate me,” he says. “I’m in awe of how the students respond to mentor-based research projects. Each student is different, but you can see them rise up and often surpass the goals that both of you set.”

RI EPSCoR Principal Investigator Carol Thornber, University of Rhode Island (URI) associate professor and marine community ecologist, figures she has mentored more than 50 students since she began mentoring in 1997.

From her perspective, Thornber says she, too, gets something back from the process: “I enjoy watching students develop confidence and independent research skills, and their excitement when they reach an ‘Aha!’ moment of discovery.”

“I am a better researcher because of my mentoring and I am a better mentor because of my research.  I have found that every grant written, every poster or paper published is partially for the goal of opening up opportunities for undergraduate students and to teach them a love and respect for science.”

Paying it forward

As a Karate instructor, Swanson was familiar with the mentor role when he started his first job out of graduate school eight and a half years ago. He traces the journey from his poor performance as an undergraduate to the life-changing impact of one professor.

He was hired for the summer between his junior and senior years by a professor in an adjunct position at the New Zealand university where he studied.

“She, for some reason, saw a glimmer of potential in me,” he recalls. “I was amazed by her in that I was able to ask her any question relevant to biology and she was able to answer it. This lit a fire in me and led us to working together through both my undergraduate degree and my M.S. She really started me down the path that I am on today.”

Thornber says she was drawn to mentoring because of the excellent guidance she received throughout her academic experience as an undergraduate, graduate student and postdoctoral researcher.

Today, in her leadership capacity, she says mentoring adds to and complements both her teaching and research projects. She invites former mentees to give guest lectures in her courses, and she includes their research results in her classes and ongoing research efforts.

Costello also appreciates the opportunity to give back and readily credits those before him with having an influence on his life. Still, he says, the credit goes to the undergraduates.

“They make all of the choices,” he says. “I just create a place where we are doing the work that we like to do. Everything they accomplish is really because they did it. It’s more like I get to ride on their coattails.”

Today, Swanson says, his research and teaching are intricately intertwined and it is impossible to separate one role from the other:

“I am a better researcher because of my mentoring and I am a better mentor because of my research.  I have found that every grant written, every poster or paper published is partially for the goal of opening up opportunities for undergraduate students and to teach them a love and respect for science.”

And, ultimately, he adds, that passion serves both undergraduates and mentors as well as advances the field of knowledge.

Story by Amy Dunkle