The Power of Mentors

For the second year, the Society of Women in Marine Science chapter at Stony Brook University has held a mentorship program for its members. Before the fall 2023 and spring 2024 semesters, the SWMS eboard reached out to professors and graduate students in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SOMAS) to ask if they would be interested in being a mentor for the second year of our mentorship program. Those who responded “Yes” were then entered into our spreadsheet for the program. A questionnaire in the form of a Google Form was then sent out to all members of the chapter to gauge their interest in whether or not they would like to participate in the program, and if interest was shown to gather information on the participant, such as their major and class standing, and what they wanted to gain from the mentorship, information on graduate school or how to get a summer internship for example. Once all mentor and participant information had been collected and put into a spreadsheet for easier organization, the eboard began matching mentors up with their mentees. Some mentors were given two to three student mentees, while others were given only one due to their schedule or prior obligations.

Unfortunately due to a high number of students wanting to participate and a limited number of mentors, the eboard was unable to find a mentor for every student interested. Due to this, students with higher standing, juniors, seniors, and graduate students, were given higher priority for a mentor. Also, none of the eboard members were assigned mentors to give non-board SWMS members a higher chance of being matched with a mentor. When all matches were completed and finalized, mentors and mentees were notified. Mentors were required to reach out to their mentees to introduce themselves and set up their first meeting. Mentees were then advised to respond to their mentor’s email with an introduction of themself including their year and major, and then confirm the first meeting time and place. All mentorship pairs were allowed to create their own meeting type and schedule, whether it was over Zoom or in person, pairs were only told they must meet at least once a month for mentors to share advice and mentees to give updates on their situation. Pairs were also encouraged to create their next meeting toward the end of the first in order to limit the amount of correspondence required between mentor and mentee throughout the semester. The current secretary for the Stony Brook chapter of SWMS, Caitlin Brislin, greatly appreciated her participation in the spring 2023 semester. She recounts her experience below.

“Though I was unable to participate in our 2024 mentorship program due to my eboard position I cherished my time in the spring of 2023. I was I second semester freshman when The Society for Women in Marine Science chapter at Stony Brook became an officially recognized organization on campus. This was the first semester that Stony Brook SWMS ran its mentorship program. I applied because I wanted to be more involved in marine science at my school since I was mainly just taking pre-requisite classes at the time. I was so happy when I saw the email that I had been assigned a mentor. My mentor’s name was Ali and she was a graduate student in the policy program. At each of our meetings, she gave me great advice about looking at and planning for graduate school as well as ways to be involved in marine science over the summer. I am from upstate New York so there were not many opportunities near where I lived. Ali mentioned that when she was in undergrad she took a class at Shoals Marine Laboratory and loved it, so she thought I could check that out. I looked Shoals up later that day and found they offered many 2-week field courses for undergraduates that I could earn up to four credits for. I applied to Shoals and was accepted for the Biology and Conservation of Sharks class for that summer. My two weeks at Shoals were amazing and I learned so much in such a short period of time. I made many friends and connections in the shark science field. I am even going back to Shoals to be a teaching assistant this July. So thank you to Ali and the Stony Brook SWMS mentorship program for getting me involved in shark science!”