When I was in grad school at Caltech, almost every day seemed picture-perfect—palm trees everywhere, gentle breezes, idyllic pathways across campus. Yet, when I got to my second year, I felt shrouded in darkness. I was questioning whether there was a place for me in academia, dealing with a reemergence of mental health struggles, and balancing being a mother to a toddler. Fortunately, I crossed paths with Sarah Del Ciello, a senior grad student, whom I confided in about not feeling like I was getting all of the support and guidance I needed in my PhD journey. “I feel lost,” I remember telling her.

What Sarah said in response to my quandary now seems so obvious. “You can find additional mentors to help you with things outside of research.” It hit me that no matter how great any one mentor is, they cannot fulfill all of your mentorship needs. Multiple mentors can fulfill different needs, whether they be professional or personal or a combination.

Years and years of research has proven that effective mentoring contributes to positive outcomes for mentees, but much of the discourse about building effective mentoring relationships in STEM focuses on training research advisors to be mentors. What about mentees? What steps can they take to build more meaningful mentor-mentee relationships that fulfill their specific needs?

Identifying different mentoring needs

In that dark time of uncertainty and of starting back on antidepressants after nearly 10 years of living without them, one of my thesis committee members left Caltech, and I had no idea whom to ask to be a replacement. Research is hard, even without that other stuff going on. My research advisor was sympathetic about those challenges, but he couldn’t relate to being a parent in grad school. Although my advisor could serve as a mentor in certain capacities, like making career decisions, he didn’t have the experiences to provide guidance in others, such as being a parent and a student at the same time. I needed to build up a roster of additional mentors.

Although it’s possible for a research advisor to assume the mentor role, not all research advisors can fulfill that role. A mentor is someone who provides professional advice or guidance, often pulling from their own experiences. A research advisor may also have those qualities, but they are at minimum a supervisor or manager. 

As an early-career scientist, you might seek a mentor to develop specific skills, like public speaking or writing; to learn research concepts from someone with a different perspective; to gain guidance in teaching, science communication, or something else; or to learn about different career paths.

Mentorship can also provide so much more than professional expertise. Mentors who have shared experiences or who counsel people of various backgrounds can provide perspectives that may help you navigate the broader world as well as science. Hannah Shay, a PhD candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), expressed the importance of having mentors “moving in [different identity] spaces because there are aspects that, unless you experience it, are just impossible to understand or know about.”

Júlio Terra, a postdoctoral associate at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, was taught growing up that he would need to hide his LGBTQ+ identity to succeed in his career. For Terra, having allies as mentors is crucial because “they can foster an inclusive atmosphere within working groups, allowing us to be ourselves and fully [use] our personalities and creativity.”

There are many personal or identity-related reasons for needing additional mentors. You could be dealing with a chronic illness and need guidance advocating for accommodations in your lab. You may be feeling isolated because you’re the only Latina in your program. Or like me, you may be dealing with side effects from medication that you need to maintain your mental health. We all have our own unique needs and therefore need the right mentors who can help guide us based on those personal, specific needs.

Finding mentors to fill your needs

Once you’ve recognized your mentoring needs, how do you identify prospective mentors? There are formal channels, like institutional or organizational mentorship programs that match mentees and mentors based on their responses to a questionnaire.

There are also informal ways to find a mentor. Some institutional and professional resources for finding mentors include:

• affinity groups or resources at your home institution, including diversity and inclusion centers/committees, centers for teaching and learning, and clubs or employee resource groups;
• ACS special interest groups, including divisions, local sections, and committees;
• other organizations, like the Association for Women in Science (AWIS), the International Younger Chemists Network (IYCN), the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE), Out in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (oSTEM), and the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS);
• social media, from LinkedIn to X (Twitter); and
• databases such as 500 Queer Scientists and Gage (500 Women Scientists).

You might find a mentor in someone after building a relationship over time. Keep in mind that mentors aren’t necessarily more senior people. Don't doubt the power of asking peers for mentor recommendations. When Shay transferred to MIT from a different graduate program, her peer network helped her make connections with others who had previously changed graduate institutions. Potential mentors “might not be active in these settings and still be allies,” says Terra, so consulting other people is important to identify people with whom you might want to connect.

Thinking back to my own mentoring needs—motherhood and mental health—I identified mentors who demonstrated that I could trust them before even entering into a mentor-mentee relationship. I found a mentor in the associate dean of graduate studies at Caltech, Dr. Kate McAnulty (now at the University of North Carolina). She helped me find places to nurse on campus during graduate orientation. That connection gradually grew into a mentor-mentee relationship over several years. With Dr. McAnulty, I could be vulnerable about my experiences as a mother without worrying that she might doubt whether I was cut out for a PhD, and I benefited from the wisdom of someone more experienced in academic settings.

Finding a mentor in the context of mental health was not as smooth. Among chemistry graduates at Caltech, there was increasing concern about support for students’ mental health. At the end of my second year of grad school, I attended a department town hall in which a faculty member stated that mental health wasn’t that big of a concern. At a follow-up town hall, a new member of the department, Assistant Professor of Chemistry Scott Cushing, used his voice to advocate for graduate scholars’ mental health. After the town hall, I excitedly introduced myself to him, beaming as I shook his hand. Shortly after, Cushing and I met to discuss navigating the PhD through mental health struggles. We set up a monthly mental health lunch, which turned out to be a group mentoring experience for chemistry grad students to chat about mental health experiences, challenges, and strategies to overcome difficulties.

Having mentors with different kinds of professional expertise to address your unique needs and wants can help you build a broader professional network and knowledge base. “It’s unlikely that you’ll ‘get it right’ the first time in terms of learning what you want to do,” says Shay. “But being open to other mentors means you learn about other opportunities and experiences.”