Mentoring Undergraduate Students: An Invitation to Faculty
In-Person
Abstract
As the pool of traditional college-going students shrinks, institutions face increasing pressure to improve outcomes for students they already serve. While mentoring is widely promoted as high-impact, evidence remains limited (Crisp & Cruz, 2009; Gershenfeld, 2014; Law et al., 2021), underscoring the need for rigorous system-level evaluation. The presentation will highlight rentention data, sense of belonging, and academic peparedness for undegraduate students in the Faculty-to-Student Mentoring Program. Finally presenters will outline best practices for successful mentorship - groundrules, feedback, and the GROW model. Statewide faculty are encouraged to attend to learn more about mentorship opportunities at each campus!
Presenters
Jeffrey Spears
Associate Professor
Dr. Jeff Spears is an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work at Utah State University. He completed his MSW degree at the University of Kansas in 2011 and PhD in Social Work at the University of Utah in 2018. Dr. Spears teaches social policy and seminar class for the past 3 years. He is a part-time therapist at Pinnacle High School in Price, Utah serving individuals and families. Dr. Spears serves on the Carbon and Emery Opioid Coalition Board and involved with the Hope Squad focused on suicide prevention. His research interests include community organizing, cyptocurrencies, and undergraduate mentorship. Dr. Spears currently serves on the steering committee and coordinator for the faculty-to-student mentorship program at USU.
Hannah Lewis
Prof Practice Assoc Professor
Dr. Hannah Mae Lewis is a lecturer of mathematics at Utah State University Eastern (USUE). She joined the faculty at USUE after completing her doctoral degree in 2020. She graduated from Utah Tech University (formerly DSU) with her B.S. in mathematics in 2012. Her master’s degree in Mathematics emphasizing in Lie Algebras and differential geometry and PhD emphasizing in growth mindset assessments for large lectures were both completed at Utah State University in Logan. She has a passion for helping future teachers to love math and increase their growth mindset with the intention of passing that love and mindset onto their future students. She loves to incorporate technology into her lesson plans, enabling students to see the many beautiful applications of mathematics. Her professional interests include the development and implementation of growth mindset structured assessments, validation of assessments, faculty and graduate student professional development, faculty-to-student mentorship, and the classification of semi-simple Lie Algebras. Her efforts in teaching have been recognized by multiple Excellence in Teaching awards from USU. Outside of professional interests, she enjoys long distance bike riding, reading, and spending time with her husband, two kids, and four goats.
Jim LaMuth
Program Coordinator III
Jim LaMuth is a program coordinator at Utah State University. He facilitates and manages the assessment and survey data for their Statewide Faculty-to-Student Mentoring Program. He started his career with school-based mentoring programs with Big Brothers Big Sister of the Western Upper Peninsula. In addition, Jim has served as both an AmeriCorps volunteer in Michigan and PeaceCorps volunteer in Benin, West Africa.
Mike Christiansen
Associate Professor
Mike Christiansen was born and raised in North Logan, Utah, graduating from Sky View High School in 1997. He later earned a B.S. in Chemistry at USU in 2004 and a PhD in Organic Chemistry at BYU in 2010. After a year-and-a-half of cancer research at Colorado State, Mike joined the USU Uintah Basin faculty in 2011. Since then, Mike has mentored 20 undergraduate research students in projects that range from making anticancer to anti-diabetes to antibiotic molecules, as well as developing new chemistry teaching materials. Mike has also coedited one ACS symposium book and has authored 21 peer-reviewed research articles, six book chapters, and one textbook, as well as 5 non-peer-reviewed articles. In 2012, Mike created a YouTube channel called “Chemistry Unleashed,” which currently has about 7-million views and 38,000 subscribers. He has also created chemistry content for Bootcamp.com—the most widely used website for pre-dental majors in the United States—and in 2020, he co-launched a new website called “Chemistry Bootcamp.” Mike teaches general chemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry, and all the complementary lab courses needed for the Chemistry minor at USU’s regional campus in Vernal, Utah
Amanda Deliman
Assistant Professor
Amanda Deliman (she/her) is an assistant professor in early childhood and elementary literacy education at Utah State University Salt Lake. Her scholarly pursuits focus on the intersections of teacher learning and teacher education, curriculum integration and the use of children’s literature, and social-emotional learning. Dr. Deliman is deeply committed to fostering a supportive and inclusive learning environment for her students. She is also dedicated to guiding future educators in developing their professional identities, achieving their goals, and navigating the challenges of the teaching profession.
David Law
Associate Vice President & Professor
David Law specializes in family life education and has a focus on marriage and family relationships. Law is also the Associate Vice President for both Vernal and Roosevelt campuses and the founder the Statewide Faculty-to-Student Mentoring Program.