Mentoring Best Practices & Team Environment

Our students thrive with the help of an engaging mentor. This mentor does not have to be a data scientist, but we encourage this individual to be attentive and support the students the best they can. Past corporate partner mentors have served as the domain expert, technical expert, or both!

5 Do’s and 5 Don’ts as a The Data Mine Corporate Partner Mentor

Do’s

  1. Attend the 50-Minute Weekly Meetings

    1. Guide the TA and students through sprint planning and sprint reviews

    2. Provide feedback to the students

    3. Provide the students with any necessary domain knowledge or concepts

  2. Be Responsive to Questions from the Students

    1. Utilize MS Teams and/or email

  3. Utilize a Project Charter

    1. Provide the students context to why the project is important. What’s the impact of this project? What is the vision?

    2. Follow the Agile methodology

      1. Each Semester consists of 7 two-week sprints

        1. Corporate Partner Mentor = Product Owner

        2. TA = Scrum Master

        3. Students = Developers

  4. Utilize The Data Mine Support System

    1. The Corporate Partner Team (Main Contact)

    2. The Data Science Team (Technical resources and development support)

    3. Consider faculty connections and potential role within project

    4. Teaching Assistant (TA)

  5. Foster a Welcoming and Inclusive Environment

    1. Encourage (require) cameras to be on for all meetings

    2. Foster a sense of belonging

    3. Promote team building

    4. Provide a space of psychological safety

    5. Be aware of academic schedule and student life

Don’ts

  1. Work on the Project

  2. Provide a step-by-step guide to do the project

  3. Teach the students EVERYTHING

    1. Please utilize your TDM support system as mentioned under the 5 Do’s

  4. Unresponsive

    1. We understand that mentors have responsibilities outside The Data Mine. Please communicate to your TDM TA, students, and CRP Liaison of any future absences.

  5. Discipline Students

    1. Leave complications with academic integrity to TDM staff

The content in the "Mentor" section is for you and we’d love if it was made with your help too.

If you have content that you would like to contribute, please send it to [email protected] or make contributions directly via GitHub.