Oceanography | March 2018
Last year, The Oceanography Society started a mentoring pro-
gram to provide guidance to graduate students on how to
survive graduate school and find a satisfying career path-
way. Academic “elders” paired with co-mentors from indus-
try and government conduct monthly teleconferences with
small groups of students. Susan Lozier initiated this TOS pro-
gram following her term as president, building on her experi-
ence with the Mentoring Physical Oceanography Women to
Increase Retention (MPOWIR) program (http://mpowir.org),
which addresses some of the “leaky pipeline” issues for women
in physical oceanography. (You can read more about MPOWIR
and its positive impact on the field as a whole in previous issues
of Oceanography, e.g., Lozier 2005, 2009; Coles et al., 2011;
Clem et al., 2014.)
Using MPOWIR as model, TOS began its own prototype pro-
gram with two mixed-gender mentoring groups whose mem-
bers span all the fields of ocean science and technology and are
drawn from a wide range of universities across the United States.
In the future, we hope to expand the program internationally.
By combining participants from many institutions, we hope to
foster networks of young scientists who will build the future
of ocean sciences. As one of the participating members, here I
share some early results of this experiment.
The initial premise of the TOS program is that the mentors
will provide sage advice to the graduate students about career
pathways, among other topics. Certainly, we’ve done some of
that. We have had some interesting discussions about network-
ing, and have read some practical guidebooks on productive
networking. We’ve talked a bit about writing and speaking and
how to use storytelling techniques to get a message across. We’ve
addressed time management, and of course we’ve talked about
concerns regarding finding satisfying employment after gradu-
ate school. But it is also true that the students are mentoring the
mentors, teaching us about what they need. It is far too easy for
academic faculty to forget what it was like to be a graduate stu-
dent, but hearing the students’ concerns is enlightening. While a
graduate school experience can be good if an advisor is patient,
fair, thoughtful, and responsive to students, not every advisor
provides students with the training necessary for future success
as a faculty member, such as how to deal with graduate students
or how to teach effectively.
Some universities now have mentoring programs, but cer-
tainly not all. I recently reviewed the web pages of most of the
oceanographic programs in the United States and a few abroad,
and found several programs that have senior faculty serve as
mentors for junior faculty. These programs are a great start, but
these same pages offer relatively little about best practices in
mentoring graduate students, or training the students to become
future mentors. Despite promotion and tenure dossiers that
require applicants to write about their philosophy of education
related to teaching and mentoring, these web pages lack any state-
ments about institutional philosophies or practices. This is odd.
There is no single way to be a good mentor—we all have
unique strengths and personalities that we bring to the task—
but some attention paid to this most important (most joyful,
most frustrating, and most rewarding) faculty task will go a
long way toward improving our programs. For faculty members
who might like to start exploring some of these general mento-
ring issues, I recommend the MPOWIR Handbook (Clem et al.,
2016). Within TOS, we plan to build on our prototype program.
Over the next few years, we anticipate producing some gen-
eral materials on best practices in mentoring of graduate stu-
dents. I hope that our institutions will use, adapt, or build on
these guidelines. As we develop TOS guidelines for mentoring in
ocean sciences, I welcome input from faculty members and pro-
grams that have addressed mentoring issues. Perhaps a start in
shining a light on mentoring would be for TOS to initiate some
mechanisms to reward high-quality mentoring; my own institu-
tion has a student-administered award for mentoring that is one
of the highest honors a faculty member can receive.
For me, participating in the TOS mentoring program is reas-
suring in that it reinforces my view that the future of ocean sci-
ences will be in great hands as the young generation of students
and early career scientists steps up and takes the reins. I look for-
ward to learning more as the TOS program continues.
Alan C. Mix, TOS President
REFERENCES
Clem, S., S. Legg, S. Lozier, and C. Mouw. 2014. The impact of MPOWIR:
A decade of investing in mentoring women in physical oceanography.
Oceanography 27(4) supplement:39–48, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.
2014.113.
Clem, S., C. Mouw, and S. Legg. 2016. MPOWIR Handbook. Available at:
http://mpowir.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/MPOWIR-Handbook.pdf.
Coles, V., L. Gerber, S. Legg, and S. Lozier. 2011. Commentary: Mentoring
groups— A non-exit strategy for women in physical oceanography.
Oceanography 24(2):17–20, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2011.43.
Lozier, M.S. 2005. A community effort toward the retention of women in phys-
ical oceanography. Oceanography 18(1):35–38, https://doi.org/10.5670/
oceanog.2005.68.
Lozier, M.S. 2009. Conference report: A successful first Pattullo Conference.
Oceanography 22(1):224–225, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2009.25.
On Mentoring of Graduate Students
FROM THE PRESIDENT