Test Preparation Support Goes Beyond a Study Workshop
Contributed by California State University, Long Beach - BUILD

In early January 2016, scholars in the CSULB BUILD program had the opportunity to participate in a week-long workshop in preparation for the GRE, a standardized test that is an admissions requirement for most graduate schools in the United States. "The course definitely met my expectations. I feel more confident on taking the GRE" one scholar said after taking the GRE preparation course."

The workshop was taught by David White, a representative of the test preparation company Testing for the Public. A graduate of Harvard Law School, White has been immersed in the study of standardized testing for 30 years. As early as 1979, he testified before the New York State legislature urging passage of "Truth in Testing" legislation that would require admission tests to be made public. He is a noted voice for greater equity in standardized testing, and has been a featured speaker at the national conventions of the Association of American Law Schools, the Society of American Law Teachers, and the National Conference of Black Lawyers.

"He's extremely knowledgeable about the GRE course material and has a great ability to communicate the material effectively," another scholar said of White.

The course was highly interactive and provided a variety of techniques for solving problems on the exam. Every scholar in the class had the opportunity to participate and was provided a safe learning environment.

"The course challenged my thought process and I learned from the people around me through open group discussion," a participant said.

Another mentioned, "He went over every problem and made sure we all understood, as well as explained why answers were wrong."

But the CSULB BUILD program will not stop there in helping its scholars pass the GRE. To give them the best chance of passing this important exam, several other resources and activities are available through the BUILD Student Center:

• Study materials, both preparation books and online resources.
• Drop-in vocabulary tests given every week.
• 30-minute prep tests, including verbal and quantitative reasoning questions, given every other week.

Scholars are encouraged to form "study pods" of three to four members. To foster friendly competition, each pod will choose a name for their group and the group's scores (not individual scores) on tests will be posted at the Student Center.

"We're making every effort to give our scholars the support they need to move on to graduate school and pursue their research career successfully," said Chi-Ah Chun, Ph.D., Director of the Student Training Core for CSULB BUILD Program. "This GRE prep program is just one example of [how] we do that."

BUILD EXITO Peer Mentors Contribute Many Things to Our BUILD Community!
Contributed by Portland State University - BUILD EXITO

In the BUILD EXITO program, each scholar is paired with a peer mentor. Our peer mentors, who are upperclassman at one of our four-year institutions, went through a competitive application and interview process and were selected for demonstrating a commitment to equity and diversity in scientific research and showing promise to successfully support our scholars. Peer mentors serve as guides to student life and success, helping EXITO scholars connect to campus cultural activities, groups and programs, as well as navigate university services such as housing, financial aid and recreation. They also have committed to share personal insights and counsel scholars on how best to take advantage of EXITO courses, resources and research experiences. Because BUILD EXITO scholars are spread across nine different colleges and universities, the peer mentoring relationship is a crucial aspect of support for our scholars, many of whom will be transferring from community colleges to four year universities while in the program. Using adapted materials from the NRMN Entering Mentoring Curriculum, each peer mentor went through a series of onboarding training to prepare for these relationships.

PSU is grateful for the 15 incredible peer mentors who have dedicated themselves to supporting scholars for the duration of the 2015-2016 academic year. These individuals represent diverse groups and experiences and bring a rich and valuable perspective to our EXITO community. Many have worked hard to forge a successful pathway into research for themselves and are pursing a wide variety of research topics including developmental neurobiology of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism, aging services in rural Oregon, health disparities in immigrant and minority populations, cancer therapeutics, nerve-specific fluorophores for use in image-guided surgery, and many others.

The travel opportunities that EXITO offers to scholars and peer mentors allows them to engage with the boarder community of researchers who are examining health related topics. These experiences have already added much value to their collective dialogue about the relevance of the work. One of our peer mentors, Kimberly Gottschalk, had a chance to travel to American Geophysical Union's (AGU) fall meeting in December and to participate in a new AGU mentoring program which matches undergraduates with researchers across the country. Kimberly, a double major in Environmental Science and Biology with a minor in Physics, is planning to apply to PhD programs in Physical Oceonography. She chose to share what she learned through her conference experience by creating a video blog of each day. She recorded and uploaded these videos and you can view them by clicking on the following links for day 1, 2, 3, 4, and then a wrap up. PSU is glad that Kimberly took the time to share her BUILD EXITO experiences!

PSU is also grateful for the peer mentors and their commitment to the EXITO scholars. Their relationship is key to the students' success. The travel opportunities that BUILD EXITO provides for scholars and peer mentors are not only beneficial for those individuals, but also for our greater community. There is much excitement at PSU to see what future scholars will learn and discover as they deepen their connection with peers and engage in experiences with the broader scientific community.

NRMN Facilitator Training Workshops: BUILDing Capacity for Mentor and Mentee Training- A NRMN Training Progress Report
Written by Kim Spencer and Jenna Rogers, National Research Mentoring Network - Mentor Training Core

To expand and enhance mentor and mentee training at BUILD institutions and other institutions nationwide, NRMN offered two train-the-trainer facilitator training workshops in early 2015. The workshops, Facilitating Mentor and Mentee Training, were held at the University of Minnesota (a NRMN hub site) on February 26-27, 2015 and at the University of San Diego on May 18-19, 2015. A total of 76 participants attended these workshops, representing the 10 BUILD primary sites, 13 BUILD partner sites and 14 non-BUILD institutions.

During the workshops, participants learned about evidence-based approaches to mentor and mentee training, gained the knowledge, confidence, and facilitation skills needed to implement training, and developed implementation plans for delivering training programs at their own institutions. Participants focused on Entering Mentoring-based curricula, including mentor training for the mentors of undergraduate students, graduate students, junior faculty and post-doctoral fellows, and on mentee training for undergraduate students based on the Entering Research curriculum.

Although all workshop attendees shared the same goal of implementing training on their campuses, attendees varied in their goals for which type of implementation they wanted to facilitate. For example, participants varied in their training curriculum focus, targeted career stage of attendees, and duration of implementation. The interactive and practice-based nature of the workshop addressed these goals, especially with tailored sessions where attendees could practice facilitating activities from their chosen curriculum and developing implementation plans and goals.

As a result of the workshop, attendees reported increased confidence in their ability to facilitate research mentor and mentee training and to implement research mentor and mentee training at their respective institutions. Furthermore, of the 82% who completed the workshop evaluation, 89% indicated that the training was either "Very Good" or "Excellent" and 90% indicated specific plans to implement research mentor or mentee training within the year.

In October 2015, a follow-up survey was sent to the workshop participants from BUILD and non-BUILD institutions to collect data on their mentor and mentee training implementations since attending the workshop. Of the 35 (42%) participants who completed the survey, 32 report having implemented at least one mentor or mentee training since the workshop, totaling 194 mentor and mentee training workshops. From the 194 mentor and mentee training workshops, over 329 mentors and 444 mentees were trained. Data from the BUILD institutions alone is also impressive, with 20 participants reporting implementation of 124 mentor and mentee training workshops, training over 270 mentors and 151 mentees.

In the follow-up survey, participants were asked about their implementation barriers and support. The most common barrier to implementation was lack of time. Participants indicated that more institutional support and more incentives for faculty involvement would be helpful. In the follow-up survey, 53% of participants reported that implementation of mentor/mentee training was a recognized part of their job responsibilities, 32% reported that their work environment was very or extremely supportive of their implementing mentee/mentor training, and 53% reported that their work environment was supportive of mentor/mentee training overall.

As implementation of mentor and mentee training at BUILD institutions expands, NRMN will continue to offer support to help address these barriers to implementation. NRMN is also working to create additional mentor and mentee training modules, particularly focused on culturally responsive mentoring and mentee training for both undergraduate and graduate students. Additional facilitator training workshops have also been scheduled as part of NRMN's ongoing dedication towards building capacity for mentor and mentee training and promoting productive, supportive and culturally responsive mentoring relationships.

Photo: NRMN Facilitating Mentor and Mentee Training Workshop at the University of Minnesota. At the end of the workshop, participants were instructed to raise their hands to indicate how prepared they were to facilitate mentor or mentee training with 1 finger meaning not at all prepared and 5 fingers meaning extremely prepared. Lots of 4's and 5's!