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The relationship our students develop with their Faculty Mentor is the most critical aspect of our program and the greatest benefit our students receive from becoming a McNair Scholar. Faculty Mentors share their time, wisdom, and expertise with their scholar as they guide them through completing a research project and applying to graduate school. Faculty Mentors serve as role-models for their scholars; showing them what their lives could be like as an academic. Mentors also expose their scholars to the cultural norms and unwritten rules of graduate school, working in higher education, and publishing scholarship.

Mentor Responsibilities

The mentor/mentee relationship should last for the duration of the scholar’s involvement with McNair and ideally continue on until the scholar graduates. While serving as a Mentor, faculty will be expected to:

• Meet with their scholar regularly during the school year and at least weekly during the McNair Summer Research Experience.
• Guide their scholar through the process of conducting research— selecting a research topic, crafting a proposal, conducting a literature review, drafting a research manuscript, and preparing a scholarly presentation to share their research.
• Help their scholars select graduate programs to apply to and advise them as they complete their graduate school applications.

Your Faculty Liaison

As our McNair Faculty Liaison, Dr. Nathan Palmer is available to answer any questions faculty have and provide whatever support is needed to ensure a strong mentor/mentee relationship. Contact Dr. Palmer at npalmer@georgiasouthern.edu or 912-478-7897.

Becoming a Mentor

To become a mentor all you need to do is complete our McNair Mentor Form that asks you to describe your prior experience working with undergraduate researchers and mentoring underrepresented students. You will also be asked to describe the research project(s) you are proposing to work with our scholar(s) on and upload a copy of your CV and a professional headshot.

Minimum Mentor Requirements

To serve as a faculty mentor you must:

• Have a doctoral degree in the appropriate discipline.
• Have ongoing research or demonstrated the ability to conduct research of high academic quality.
• Have demonstrated success in teaching and mentoring students from backgrounds that are underrepresented in graduate school (i.e. first-generation, low-income, and students of color).
• Be committed to the objectives of the McNair Scholars Program.