Requirements for Mentors

Faculty mentors must commit to active engagement with the student’s research project appropriate to the discipline throughout the ten-week period designated in the student’s plan of work. They must also commit to mentoring the student through the process of application for a national scholarship and/or graduate program, a commitment that may extend beyond the summer research term.

These commitments should be clearly outlined in the letter of support the mentor writes for the student. Also included in the letter should be any additional support the mentor, lab, or research group will provide, which might include supplies, space, and equipment usage.

Faculty mentors will be expected to participate actively in the meetings and colloquia and work with the Undergraduate Research Director and Program Coordinator on scholarship and graduate-school guidance. In exchange for this commitment, faculty mentors can opt in for a weekly award of $100 (up to $1,000) paid into a spending account managed by their department to support their research and mentoring activities. If a faculty member chooses to opt out of the weekly award, those funds will return to the general pool to help support additional students or to increase the award amount to students (across the board). If a faculty mentor is working with more than one Peak Summer Research Fellow, the weekly award remains $100 (it is not multiplied by the number of students). Deans or department heads interested in incentivizing faculty participation are cordially welcome to provide mentor funds, either as a match or independently.

Mentors of successful applicants will receive additional information about the requirements of students and faculty participating in the program when the awards are offered in late March.