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Prospective Faculty Mentors

Becoming a Mentor

This program would not be possible without the support and participation of faculty mentors like you! 

Faculty interested in serving as mentors are encouraged to review this information and email MAOP with any specific questions not addressed here. The mentor application will request details about your research, which is essential for giving prospective students insight into the research questions your lab is exploring and your approach to answering them. Prospective interns indicate their research interests during the application process, which is managed through the graduate school application system, SLATE. Using this system, faculty mentors can review and choose the most suitable candidates for their internship positions. Faculty are encouraged to reach out directly to selected candidates, as this can help in making a final decision on the most qualified intern. Once selections are made, students are notified via SLATE, and it is their responsibility to accept or decline the internship offer.

We recommend that faculty include this program in their grant proposals for Education and General (E&G) funds to ensure financial support for each intern they mentor. Each intern costs $4,500, and we match that amount to cover a total of $9,000. This funding covers the intern's monthly stipend, room and board, meal plan, a 3-day communication and team-building retreat at Smith Mountain Lake, and various professional development activities.

MAOP is committed to providing a comprehensive summer experience for interns, including personalized support through one-on-one meetings with MAOP staff. We also work with students to develop individualized plans that integrate this and other experiential learning opportunities. Faculty mentors play an integral role in this development process by either providing access to their Canvas course or creating a mini course that introduces the foundational knowledge needed for the research the intern will be conducting. This allows mentors to offer guidance and background information before and during the program.

This 10-week program is available to students from institutions nationwide as well as Virginia Tech students. For participants from outside Virginia Tech, we provide a VT student ID number (SID) and a Hokie Passport on "Move-in Day" to ensure access to their dormitories, research facilities, Canvas, and other necessary software. Faculty mentors are responsible for ensuring their mentees have appropriate access to the latter resources.

MAOP celebrates this program and its participants with a Welcome Dinner at the start and a Closing Reception following the Research Symposium. We encourage faculty mentors to support their mentees by attending these events, which provide an opportunity for everyone to connect with their mentors and mentees. Co-mentors and graduate students involved in the summer research team are also welcome to join.

All participating students will be enrolled in the MAOP SRI Canvas course, where details about scheduled events, research guidelines, and poster presentation information will be shared. Faculty mentors are encouraged to review this course with their mentees, noting important deadlines and adding them to “assignments” to help both the mentor and student stay on track, ensuring the project deliverable is completed one week before the Undergraduate Summer Research Symposium.

The Undergraduate Summer Research Symposium serves as the highlight of the program, where students will showcase their work through a poster presentation. MAOP offers participants the chance to rehearse their presentations, with practice session dates available on the Canvas calendar. We strongly encourage faculty mentors to attend these sessions to offer feedback on both the posters and the presentations. Faculty mentors are also responsible for printing their mentees' posters, with all specifications provided to the students via Canvas.

Apply to be a Faculty Mentor

Frequently Asked Questions

Each student will cost the mentor $4500. This will go towards their housing and meal plan as well as team building/communication weekend retreat and other program expenses geared toward complimenting their research experience.

Your mentorship is a volunteer opportunity that embodies the Virginia Tech Ut Prosim (That I May Serve) motto.

This 10-week internship starts on May 27 with a Welcome Dinner where the interns have the opportunity to meet their mentors. We hope you are able to attend and help kick off the program. We close the program with a research symposium that gives the students the space to present their research and a reception where we celebrate all the interns and mentors one last time. While we would love for our faculty mentors to be involved with their mentees during the full 10 weeks, we know family and professional responsibilities are also summer priorities. Proxys and other mentors are also welcome to participate in these program bookends.

Prospective interns indicate their research interests during the application process, which is managed through the graduate school application system, SLATE. Using this system, faculty mentors can review and choose the most suitable candidates for their internship positions. Faculty are encouraged to reach out directly to selected candidates, as this can help in making a final decision on the most qualified intern. Once selections are made, students are notified via SLATE, and it is their responsibility to accept or decline the internship offer.

Mentors in our research program are expected to provide a high-quality research experience for your mentee. We understand summer is time for family, conferences, grant writing and other key aspects of your research, thus we expect your lab team members to work with you and your mentee to provide this experience. If you have ongoing research the mentee can be part of, please keep in mind, they will need to present their research at the end of the program in poster form at our symposium. Therefore, providing them with their own research question, the opportunity to develop a way to test that question and generate quality data that can be analyzed and ready to present in a 10-week period, is critical.

All interns will have a Hokie passport and SID that can be used to provide access to your building. Your department will need to provide any specific software your mentee will need to conduct their research.

When you fill out the Faculty Mentor application, you can provide us with the information specific about this student. We will do everything possible to make sure they have the opportunity to continue their research in your lab as part of this internship. The student is still required to apply and submit all the paperwork required just like all other applicants. Ultimately, the faculty selects the right mentee for their research team.

All MAOP undergraduate research interns are expected to work at least 30 hours per week. They will be invited to join the MAOP SRI Canvas course where they will have access to scheduled activities and other program opportunities that may occur during the week as well as on the weekend. It is the responsibility of your mentee to communicate with you of any events, seminars or workshops that can potentially interfere with time in the lab. We encourage you go over their schedule with your mentee on the first week of the program to set clear expectations from the beginning.