Mentoring Matters
Welcome to "Mentoring Matters" the podcast where professors Stephanie Hansen and Mary Drewnoski share their expert insights on how to excel as a mentor. Join us as we tackle the challenges of mentoring graduate students and offer actionable tips for building community, enhancing communication, and fostering a culture of learning within your team. With years of experience and hard-won wisdom, Hansen and Drewnoski will provide the guidance you need to succeed in your mentoring endeavors. Tune in to "Mentoring Matters" for valuable insights and advice on mentoring graduate students.
Episodes
In this episode of Mentoring Matters, we dig into how to give students feedback and why it's so hard! We start with the big reason it stings: students tend to tie their self-worth to the quality of their work, so a draft full of comments can feel like a verdict on them as a person. We talk about how to separate the work from the writer so feedback becomes a tool for growth.
We also walk through our START framework fo...
In this episode of Mentoring Matters, we get personal. We recorded this one back in January 2025 and are just now sharing it, but the topic is too important to sit on. Mary and Steph both stepped away from their labs for a semester, one planned and one not, and we're talking about what that looked like, what we wish we'd done differently, and what we'd tell other mentors to have in place before they need it.
We talk ...
In this episode of Mentoring Matters, dig into the (unfortunately) age-old question: am I actually being productive, or just busy? Inspired by Cal Newport's Slow Productivity, we explore what it looks like to focus on fewer, higher-impact commitments, and why that matters not just for your own work, but for the quality of mentoring you can offer your students.
We talk through how to evaluate new opportunities before ...
In this episode of Mentoring Matters, we tackle a question that's been on a lot of mentors' minds: how do we guide our graduate students in using AI without letting it replace the critical thinking skills we're trying to build? Mary gets honest about her hesitation to even bring up AI with her students, and Steph shares how she's been integrating tools like Claude and Notebook LM into her mentoring and teaching.
Toge...
In this solo episode of Mentoring Matters, Steph shares how she approaches the start of a new semester with plans that actually survive reality. Instead of chasing perfection, she focuses on building sustainable systems: protecting time for deep thinking work, stress-testing your calendar, and breaking big goals into small, repeatable processes.
She also tackles common faculty pain points, from mentoring high-achievi...
Steph is back for another solo episode, continuing The Graduate Mentor’s Trail Map series. This time she digs into why culture isn’t fluff—it’s strategy.
You’ll hear how an abundance mindset shapes behavior, why fostering mutual support increases grit, and how team-building (yes, even a group hike) creates shared identity that lasts through the hard stuff. From ice cream to paper bags, S...
Steph is back for another solo episode, drawing from The Graduate Mentor’s Trail Map. This time focusing on helping grad students believe they can get better—and making sure they know what "better" even looks like.
We talk growth mindset, how to normalize mistakes as part of the process, and why “kind is clear” isn’t just a Brene Brown soundbite—it’s a foundational mentoring ...
Join Dr. Steph Hansen for a solo mini-series of Mentoring Matters, diving deep into the concepts from our new book, The Graduate Mentor's Trail Map. This episode tackles the #1 challenge for faculty mentors: finding the time to do it well.
Steph shares actionable strategies including Stephen Covey's "Big Rocks First," the Eisenhower Matrix, and effective delegation to help you reclaim your calendar. Discover why inte...
In this episode of Mentoring Matters, we explore the transformative potential of generative AI tools like ChatGPT in the context of graduate student mentoring. As these cutting-edge technologies continue to advance, they offer unique opportunities to enhance the mentoring experience and support the growth and development of graduate students.
We delve into the various ways in which ChatGPT and similar tools can be le...
In this (long awaited) episode of Mentoring Matters we discuss how to get our students started off strong at the beginning of the semester. Things we discussed include:
- How much Steph loves to plan
- Setting goals and milestones for your students AND helping them understand your purpose behind the plan
Enjoy!
For actionable tips and strategies for mentoring please check out The Graduate Mentor's Trail Map availab...
Dr. Jodi McGill (Assistant Dean of Research and Graduate Students at Iowa State University's College of Veterinary Medicine) joined us to discuss what we learned in our last grad faculty book club. We read the book "Wellbeing at Work" by Jim Clifton and Jim Harter, which is from Gallup and CliftonStrengths-based. The book focuses on 5 pillars of wellbeing, a topic we've been very interested in lately.
Some takeaw...
Time management can be a struggle for graduate students and faculty. In this episode we offer tips to make more efficient use of your time, with the goal of reducing everyone's stress.
We discussed:
- Scheduling "the big rocks" (e.g. the important, big items) first and putting the "sand" around them (e.g. the smaller, urgent things)
- Understanding how much stuff you can really put on your plate, and ways to say "N...
In this episode we take you on a behind the scenes journey to hear about our graduate student interactions over a random week.
Things we discussed:
- Being intentional with our time
- Planning ahead to reduce the student's stress (and ours!!)
- Helping students prepare for job interviews
- Preparing for student presentations
- And that pesky fact that we do these mentoring things in addition to the rest of our faculty r...
In this episode we share ideas for improving resiliency in our graduate students. Topics covered include:
- Angela Duckworth's book "Grit" and Liz Wiseman's "Impact Players" are two resources we discuss and recommend
- Passion is a part of resiliency, we discuss ways to foster passion in our students
- Deliberate practice: we suggest ways to pressure test our students to build those skills they need later in the defense,...
In this episode we discuss how we've used book clubs with our graduate students to enhance community and habit building.
- Mary talks about reading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey and Steph talks about reading Atomic Habits by James Clear.
- We discuss what worked, what we'd do differently next time, and what the students thought of it (because Mary did a survey!)
In this episode: Steph and Mary are on vacation! And nerding out about how we use the Clifton Strengths talent assessment in our graduate student mentoring. Similar to how we use Meyers Briggs Type Indicator, Strengths is another way to help us tailor the mentoring experience to get the most out of every student (in the least stressful way!)
We discussed:
- What Clifton Strengths is (and what it isn'...
In this episode we discuss what a powerful tool recognition of individual and team success can be, including:
- Why it's important to ask your team members how they want to be recognized.
- Reinforcing the idea that your team is not necessarily just like you!
- Mary and Steph are super different in how they want to be recognized! (Shocking no one that knows us IRL).
- Novices grow more in response to positive praise-how do ...
In this episode we discuss how reflection helps our graduate students learn and grow. We talk about some of the strategies we are already using to cause students to pause and reflect and ways we want to try in the future.
What- Recapping the experience
So what- Why does it matter?
Now what- What's next? What do we do differently next time?
We also decided this was just one more example of using p...
Attending conferences can be a great way to entice a student to finish a project and share their data. But how do we help students get the most out of an often very expensive conference attendance?
In this episode we reminisce about some of our favorite conference moments and discussed:
- Helping introverted students practice networking tools
- Helping students know their "pitch"
- Setting expectations of students...
Hello Mentors!
In this episode we reflect on the value of taking time to prepare for our individual grad student meetings. We offer some strategies to find time in your busy schedule and discuss a checklist of items we like to cover in these individual meetings. It's hard to believe we have to schedule time to think about our students, but sometimes that is the reality, so check out the episode for tips to ...
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