Current list of Engineering GSMs (.pdf file)

The Graduate Student Mentors (GSMs) at the College of Engineering are a group of experienced Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs) who serve as consultants and teaching mentors to the rest of the GSI population in the College of Engineering. The Graduate Student Mentors at the College of Engineering are centrally organized through the Office of the Associate Dean for Graduate Education, and are trained and supervised by staff from the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT). Currently, there are ten GSMs, with each one being accountable for 20 to 30 Engineering GSIs. While centrally organized, the GSMs are responsible for Graduate Student Instructors in one, two or three departments; this arrangement allows GSMs to get to know one cadre of Graduate Student Instructors very well.

The GSM program in the College of Engineering was founded on the belief that developing GSIs could benefit from the unique guidance, support, and experience that peer mentors provide. While all GSIs have access to mentoring from their advisors or other professors in their department, the peer mentor relationship provides a safe venue for exploration of teaching strategies and discussion of teaching initiatives and issues. GSMs in the College of Engineering are trained to mentor in a facilitative way, a model that appeals to their own sense of their role, and approaches the collegial style of supervision preferred by most GSIs. Additionally, the nature of the peer mentor-mentee interaction is such that it creates a reciprocity that benefits both individuals becoming a valuable learning experience for the GSMs themselves.

Engineering Graduate Student Mentor Activities

• Contacting assigned GSIs to remind them of your availability
• Observing GSIs and providing feedback to them
• Collecting feedback from the GSIs' students and discussing them with GSIs confidentially
• Planning and facilitating lunches for GSIs to discuss teaching strategies
• Attending bi-weekly training meetings
• Performing one-on-one consultations with individual GSIs on a variety of teaching-related issues
• Attending mandatory and optional training offered by CRLT
• Reporting the number of contacts with GSIs and activities performed as mentors
• Participating in the Engineering Graduate Student Instructor Teacher Training

How to Apply

Interested graduate students with at least one semester of teaching experience should apply before the end of the current semester. Click here to download an application or request one by e-mail writing Tershia Pinder-Grover (tpinder@umich.edu). The GSM position in the College of Engineering is a 10% appointment and the applicant is required to have other support of at least 25% as a GSI or GSRA. (Students with student visas must have appointments between 0.25 and 0.4). Proof of this primary appointment must be submitted prior to hire. This appointment does not carry any tuition waiver or benefits.

For more information about the Graduate Student Mentor program contact Tershia Pinder-Grover (tpinder@umich.edu, ph: 763-9678).