Ohio State’s Graduate school has launched a mentoring program. Credit: Casey Cascaldo | Lantern File Photo
For graduate students, navigating the changing world of academia while researching, writing a dissertation and working towards a degree can be difficult to face alone.
For Mary Stromberger, vice provost for graduate education and dean of the graduate school, her lack of a personal mentoring experience helped motivate her to relaunch the Ohio State Mentoring Initiative (OSMI) in the graduate school.
Stromberger was a first-generation student at West Chester University. When she decided to attend graduate school, Stromberger said she did not know what to expect and had no one to turn to for advice.
“It was definitely challenging at first, because you’re expected to be independent and you’re expected to figure it out, almost like that part is a test of how you’ll do as a scholar,” Stromberger said. “Research and figure it out.”
She said it would have been helpful to have had mentors to guide her through graduate school, to encourage her what to prioritize and how to advocate for herself.
The renewed mentoring initiative aims to make resources available for graduate students who need them, giving faculty the same opportunities as well to help them develop strong mentorship relationships, Stromberger said.
“We just wanted to make resources available to everyone so that there’d be greater equity in providing faculty with resources to help them be better mentors to graduate students and postdocs,” Stromberger said.
OSMI was founded back in 2017 under the leadership of Marcela Hernandez, assistant dean for Faculty Affairs and Recruitment in the College of Engineering and Dr. Noah Weisleder, previous faculty director for the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, Brianna Johnson, assistant dean for mentoring and strategic initiatives said. The program hosted workshops up until 2024 as they worked to find a home for it. As of summer 2025, the program was relaunched in the graduate school.
“The crux of the Ohio State Mentoring Initiative is to provide workshops on mentoring for faculty members that are working with graduate students and postdoctoral scholars and others across the university,” Johnson said.
Stromberger said the goal of the program is to develop a culture where the university values mentoring graduate and post-doctorate students, matching them with mentors who can help them develop skills before they step into their post-graduate career.
Before being matched with mentors, students will explain what their career goals are and what skills they need to develop to best step into the field. They then will be matched with multiple mentors to create a more well-rounded student, Stromberger said.
“When you think about all the things that students and postdocs need to grow and develop as a scholar, it’s impossible for one person to be able to mentor a student or postdoc at all of the things that they need,” Stromberger said.
To reintroduce the program to Ohio State, Johnson said they took inspiration from the University of Wisconsin — which has a mentoring center. The first two workshops Ohio State decided for the relaunch focus on aligning expectations and effective communication to make sure mentoring relationships are productive, which are Wisconsin’s most popular classes, Johnson said.
“If those two pieces are not in place, then it’s really hard to talk about other things like professional development or mentoring plans,” Johnson said.
As the program has just resumed, the current mentors are faculty who have already worked in the OSMI program.
“We’re focused on supporting mentoring relationships that are already there, and it’s been really exciting to hear different people’s stories in that regard,” Johnson said.
Depending on the demand, the program may ask more faculty to participate, Stromberger said, but it currently is too early to tell. Stromberger said the mentorship program is also interested in expanding further to mentor communities and connect faculty with each other.
“There’ll be a variety of activities aimed at bringing people together from all across the university,” Stromberger said.
Within the mentorship program, students are encouraged to create an Individual Development Plan, where they will be tasked with establishing goals and reflecting on their career interests and how to prepare to become a strong candidate for the field, Stromberger said.
“It’s asking the student to reflect on what it is that they would like to accomplish this year, and in thinking about their careers, what are the competencies that they would like to develop to prepare themselves for the career,” Stromberger said.
This tool can then be used as a guide for the student and mentor to make sure they are focusing on the specific, relevant needs of the student rather than the faculty member, Stromberger said.
Johnson also said that among the most exciting resources the OSMI program are toolkits for mentees, geared towards graduate students and postdoctoral students to help them develop. There are also toolkits for faculty members that would prepare them for a mentoring relationship.
“We really tried to make sure that it’s not just links and videos, but it’s also tangible things that people can customize and that can be useful, because we know we’re a broad and diverse community with many different sizes and types of departments in many different fields,” Johnson said, “so it’s never going to be one size fits all.”
For those writing a dissertation, online and in-person resources can help students through the writing process that will be featured through the mentorship program, Stromberger said.
The OSMI program also has resources to help other departments or organizations who want to create a peer mentoring program for graduate students, which takes place in surveys where mentors and mentees can fill them out.
“We also have an orientation that we provide to graduate student mentors and mentees to help them just get the basics of what mentoring looks like and what the expectations are,” Johnson said. “We can help departments who may want to start a graduate student peer mentoring program to be able to do that as well.”
Stromberger said that people generally want to help others and mentors want to provide guidance because they were likely to have been helped by someone else and wouldn’t be where they are today otherwise.
“The vast majority of mentors out there want to return the favor and want to give back,” Stromberger said. “They are generally excited to talk with you, and are looking forward for the opportunity to make a difference from someone else, just as someone had made a difference to them.”
Johnson also emphasized the importance of a mentoring relationship through her own graduate experience, with a few mentors that come to mind.
“My dissertation advisor was a tremendous advocate and champion, and really helped me to shape my identity as a researcher and a scholar,” Johnson said. “She was effective in creating an environment on the research team where we all leaned on each other for support.”
Despite her mentor setting high expectations, Johnson’s mentor supported her through it all and she said that she will always hold that experience dear. Johnson also said that she now works as a peer with another mentor she had, where they are able to work on an academic piece together as colleagues.
“One thing I love about mentoring relationships [is that they] can last a long time and they can evolve over time,” Johnson said. “I’m very passionate about it. I think mentors are crucial to the graduate student and the student experience, and I’m happy to have the opportunity to pay it forward in this way.”
To learn more about OSMI, visit their website here.
