William L. Graf,
Regents’ Professor of Geography

The purpose of this document is to outline my philosophy for successful graduate mentoring by defining a set of goals and a procedure to achieve them. My philosophy is not necessarily the only approach to graduate mentoring, but it is one that has proven successful.

The goals of my graduate mentoring program involve the student, advisor, the institution, and general society. Success for the student is in terms of happiness, productivity, and excellence, while for me the goals are to make meaningful contributions to new knowledge and to facilitate the production of quality scholars and practitioners for the future. The students and I work within the institutional framework of the university. We adopt the aspirations of that institution and seek to insure that the institution fulfills its mission of teaching, research, and service in relationship to the surrounding community. Finally, at some point, our student-mentor relationship contributes to the society that financially and politically supports the entire process by improving the general quality of life and by solving problems.

My primary responsibility as a mentor is to aid the student in achieving his or her self-defined goals. We all pursue happiness and satisfaction in different ways, but for those students who seek happiness in a scholarly or professional career, I can serve as a major guide. This perspective implies that I do not impose a standard template on the students' careers, but rather that I am sensitive to the individuality and personal goals of each graduate student. My experience is that they are all different from each other, and successful mentoring celebrates and uses that diversity to the student's advantage.

Two common underlying goals for students in graduate education are productivity and excellence. As the mentor, I can ease the difficult transition from an undergraduate perspective where one is a consumer of information to a graduate perspective where one is a creator and a provider of information. I assist the student in adopting a productive mentality, where science, social science, humanities, or art have romanticized aspects, as well as production aspects.

I teach that a scientist, for example, should take pride in production of new knowledge on a continuing basis, just as a carpenter takes pride in producing a continuing series of new houses. I am the one who must demonstrate by example, however, that copious production is not enough. The producer must strive for excellence, for as surely as sport has its champions, so, too, does the academy and the professions. Often I serve as the coach, and the student is the intellectual athlete in a grand intellectual competition. It is the student's goal to win; it is my goal to provide the skills and attitudes for victory.

Goals for the Mentor
In the most effective student-mentor relationships, both parties benefit enormously from the interaction, implying that the process aids in goals for the mentor as well as the student. For me as the mentor in a comprehensive teaching and research institution, the generation of new knowledge is the ultimate goal. Part of that goal is wrapped up in teaching, the imparting of existing knowledge to students, for whom it is new. But part of the goal is also creative, original work. The graduate student is my logical partner in this grand enterprise, sharing the excitement of exploration and creation. By teaching the foundation principles of my own career, I reinforce those principles for me as well as for the student. By stretching the frontier of knowledge in research with the student, I see an expanded world that otherwise would not be visible, and we both benefit greatly from the joint venture.

At some point, the mentoring process fulfills one of my most important functions as a faculty member: the production of new scholars and practitioners for the future. The constant resupply of talent for the nation's colleges, universities, government, and private enterprises is the major product of the mentor. There is great satisfaction in achievement of these large-scale goals at job, a true pleasure of the mentoring process.

Arizona State University seeks to contribute to the social and environmental health of Arizona (and by extension, the nation and the world) through its teaching, research, and service activities. Graduate students and their mentors are critical components of the institutional mission. In partnerships with the surrounding community, mentors and students address questions whose importance extends beyond the walls of the university, and provide answers for improved lives. We provide more than cheap labor for university/community partnerships, because we provide energy, ideas, and knowledge that cannot be bought at any price.

Effective graduate mentoring contributes directly to this larger university mission by sound management of the graduate education process. Beneficial results are diverse, ranging from the improvement of public school teaching, for example, to better engineering designs for electronic equipment, or enhanced environmental management and protection.

Society at large pays the bills, and no graduate student-mentor relationship is self-supporting. My students and I therefore have an obligation to society as whole, and as the senior partner in the relationship, it falls to me to insure that graduate training enterprise addresses questions of critical concern for society. Any thesis or dissertation may demonstrate the competence of the student (and by implication of the mentor), but if it does not serve the needs of the society that pays for it, the process lacks responsibility.

Of necessity, graduate training is often highly focused, but narrow contributions can be valuable if they are directed to specific problems of interest to others besides the student and mentor. Integrative graduate education is particularly difficult in a compartmentalized university structure, but I can encourage broad training and synthesis-oriented research designed to address the inherently integrated and complex societal problems such as social stability, economic prosperity, and environmental quality.

As the mentor, I am primarily responsible for the achievement of the goals outlined above. The process of mentoring as I practice it includes selective recruitment of new graduate students, initial education, partnership development, professionalization, launching, and post-graduation career advancement.

I identify and recruit new entry-level students as an academic matchmaker. Through network contacts, conferences, and unsolicited applications, I identify students who will flourish in my department with me as the specific mentor. Professional interests should be parallel and personalities must mesh well to facilitate the entire process. This is not to say that the student and I necessarily should like each other on a social basis, but we should provide evidence to each other that we are likely to have a productive professional relationship, with support and constructive criticism flowing in both directions. Direct face-to-face discussions are the best route to sound pre-program decisions.

The early portions of graduate education are critical to building a foundational set of knowledge and skills for later success. The knowledge is usually technical, but it also includes the larger implications of the student's interest and the social and intellectual context of the student's work. It is easier for the student to see the details, perhaps easier for the mentor to see the larger picture. Sometimes the most important skills are highly technical, but often they are more ordinary but no less important. I emphasize effective writing, public speaking, working alone with little direction, working in interactive groups, winning with humility, losing with grace, and managing stress.

The student and I must evolve into a partnership in the middle period of the student's graduate career. Sometimes this partnership is quite close, sometimes with jointly conducted work, joint authorships, and close professional identity between us. In other cases, the partnership is loosely defined, with my guidance largely invisible and with the independence of the student being maximized. The most appropriate route depends on the student's personality and the nature of the graduate project (as well as disciplinary norms).

An integral part of the partnership phase of mentoring is the professionalization of the student. The student-mentor relationship is likely to be the first time a student has entered into an intense, close relationship that is not personal. This new experience is based on shared professional goals, and proper behavior in such professional relationships is a lesson for life that the student must learn, and for which I must accept ultimate responsibility. Professionalization includes how to interact with others in the work place, the ethics of the profession, the norms of the discipline, and the acceptable procedures for doing business. The acceptable limits of private behavior may also be at issue.

Graduation is the launching of the student's independent career. The final defense of the thesis or dissertation, or the final performance or production, is a surprisingly important watershed divide in many professional lives. I insure that final test is fair, but also challenging as an introduction to the rough-and-tumble world outside the university. At the same time, I insure that the student is prepared and equipped to succeed in that demanding final test. When the student succeeds, I must be prepared to let go and to see the years-long professional relationship with the student evolve into a new phase of sustained professional association.

This final phase of the student-mentor relationship is not hierarchical. The student has truly become my colleague, and though we are likely to go our separate ways, the strong supporting ties between us do not disappear. Rather, they evolve into other kinds of support, and as the erstwhile mentor I serve as a source of advice, information, and career guidance. Often, the one-time student serves as a source of new ideas and critical contacts for me. With a bit of luck, the graduate becomes an all-important conduit for recruiting new students, and the entire mentoring process begins again with new students, new talents, and new experiences.

A large, comprehensive public university such as Arizona State University includes faculty members with diverse interests and talents. Some of us are outstanding undergraduate teachers, others excel at basic or applied research, and some are adept at public service or administration. Some of us take as our special contribution the mentoring of graduate students. Our success is measured by the degree to which we permit students to achieve their personal goals, and by the contributions we collectively make to achieving the overall goals of our community of scholars. Mentoring is not a job, nor a career, it is an intellectual life.