Radcliffe Mentorships Offer Guidance, Perspectives

The mood was one of excited anticipation as participants in the Radcliffe Mentor Program made their way into the Cronkhite Graduate Center yesterday.

Emerging from the brunch, Joanna Chin '99 and Emily K. Cheung '01 said they were eager to explore the career path pursued by Dr. Carol T. Walsh '67, a pharamcologist at Boston University Medical School.

But Walsh imparted more than a simple recounting of her academic passions. Balancing workplace and family will require introspection, she told them.

"I'll have to use some historical perspective," Walsh said. "Because when I was really involved in all the career and family balancing I was too busy to be a mentor--I was chasing after child care and two kids."

At a University where professional role models are hard to find, students, men and women alike, often look to their academic departments or their Houses for guidance.

But, educators increasingly acknowledge, women leaving the College for the professional world face a different world than that faced by men.

Women's challenges include persistent discrepancies in hiring and pay, lack of flexibility in paid-leave and child-care programs and, especially in the sciences, forging pathways in male-dominated fields.

The plethora of mentorship programs offered by Radcliffe are intended to elevate undergraduate women's prospects for success in the workplace-- by establishing social networks and giving women a glimpse of life outside Harvard's gates.

"Women students look for a fuller presence in a mentor than what they look for in a teacher," said Tamar March, dean of Radcliffe College. "They seek guidance not only on an intellectual level, but from the fuller person. Very often what the student is interested in is how the mentor got to her position as a scholar, spouse--if that's so--or professional. It's a multifaceted role."

The mentorship programs are a valued resource provided by Radcliffe, an institution whose significance has been questioned in recent years by critics who contend it is little than a fund-raising organ.

Radcliffe President Linda S. Wilson emphasized in an interview that "there are some advantages to having female mentors, but it's important to have both men and women mentors."

However, Wilson--herself a mentor for undergraduates --added that for many female students the mentorship experience "has been a shaping matter to be able to see people who look like them doing things they want to do."

A 'Fuller Person'

For 12 years the Radcliffe Mentor Program has annually matched about 110 female students with mentors. The brunch yesterday was only the first step for this year's pairs in a process that, March says, takes advantage of the "fuller person."

Kim McGrath, who has been administering the mentorship program since 1994, defined it as "career-oriented," with an interest in helping first-year students but focusing on the needs of seniors.

McGrath cited maternity leave and child care as prime concerns for women about to graduate. Male mentors can also provide a useful perspective on child care, McGrath said, but she emphasized the importance of a woman's perspective, especially on issues like child care. "Having a woman who has taken leave or hired a nanny is important."

Prospective participants tell Radcliffe about their background and career goals and can select their top three mentors from a list of more than 100.

The program's steering committee then matches students with alumnae--some of the most valuable resources for current female students--says Kerrien Rollins '98, student chair of the program's steering committee and a former participant.

"They share a common experience, a kinship," she says. "It's not that men can't be exceptional mentors or advisers, it's simply that it's psychologically easier to see yourself" in a female mentor's role.

Research Partnerships

Finding a mentor can be a tricky process--especially for first- and second-year students who seek to get a feel for careers without wading in too deep.

The Radcliffe Research Partnerships and the Radcliffe Externship Program--both coordinated by the Radcliffe Office of Undergraduate Affairs--offer a mentorship framework which can lead to personal as well as professional relationships, students in the programs say. Unlike the Radcliffe Mentor Program, they encourage students to seek out mentors on their own.

The paid research partnership program allows female students to apply for semester-or year-long research projects in conjunction with Faculty members or fellows at the Bunting Institute, the Murray Research Center and the Radcliffe Public Policy Institute. This year, 32 projects were launched, with 48 students already participating.

The research partnership program has about a 50 percent acceptance rate, as participation blossomed by 42 percent last year, says program director Colleen MacDonald. She emphasizes that the partnership is not about the salary, but about developing mentoring relationships.

MacDonald says partnerships are increasingly popular because the student researchers are hand-picked by researchers--and not just assigned to them.

Michele N. Holbrook '82, a plant physiologist at the College, has employed several students as research assistants through the program, most recently Supinda Bunyavanich '99. Holbrook praised the partnerships, but encouraged students to investigate possible mentors outside of structured programs.

"Students need to be more proactive," Holbrook says.

"We [Faculty] don't really have a way to get in touch with students--we're busy doing our work," she says. "It's really just who walks through the door. Applying to the Radcliffe Partnership Program is like knocking on the door, just someone shows you where the doorknob is."

Holbrook also said that although Faculty may not generally seek out student mentees, they definitely benefit from such mentoring relationships.

"You get in touch with how quick undergrads can learn," she says.

"They ask good questions; they don't know the party line and don't see things along the same old lines."

Bunyavanich says she has been pleased with the partnership--which grew from lab work to include a two-week research trip to Chile last year. She says that although it began strictly as a work relationship, it developed into a mentoring partnership.

"In the beginning we didn't know each other that well, but as we got to know each other it got richer," Bunyavanich says.

An environmental science and public policy concentrator, Bunyavanich said working with Holbrook imparted both academic and personal insight.

"She gave me perspectives on the different stages of education, what she thinks about women's issues, sports, life," Bunyavanich says of Holbrook.

"When I started the partnership, I wasn't really looking to do a research project just wanted to work with faculty. It really can take you unexpected places."

Partners meet on a weekly basis to discuss both academic work in progress and student concerns or interests.

"The weekly meeting is an unpaid [as opposed to research] time to discuss the work but also to discuss more of the issues of interest to students," says MacDonald. "Usually students want to know how [partners] got to the position where they are since many of the scholars took non-traditional paths."

Short-Term Mentor, Long-Term Friend

Some spend spring recess parked in front of the TV at home or soaking up sun on sunny beaches. Those eager to try on a possible career try the Radcliffe Externship Program.

Now in its 20th year, the program pairs about 50 female students with women in various fields. It is similar to the Harvard Career Internship program also held during spring recess, except that it includes only women externs and senior partners. Radcliffe externs also stay in the homes of their hosts rather than on their own, as in the Harvard program.

"Women show the externs not only what it's like to work in a certain field, but also how to juggle the various aspects of their professional lives," says program director Susan Arnotte.

Although a week provides little time for students to form concrete conclusions about a given field, Arnotte says, externships offer participants "a good dose of career exploration," often in parts of the country or in specialized careers they might not think to explore.

Past extern sponsors include a rural sheep farmer, Hollywood filmmaker Claudia Wyle and New York City mayoral candidate Ruth W. Messinger '62.

Rosanna A. Orfield '98 spent spring recess last year with Messinger at the heart of New York politics, attending staff meetings, briefings and gala events.

"I went everywhere with her, from meetings with corporate donors to the 'Night of 1,000 Gowns'--the biggest transvestite event in New York," Orfield says.

"It's really empowering to have a woman mentor. It makes it easier for me to envision myself in her role."

Orfield participated in the Harvard Internship Program in the past, but says staying with Messinger and getting one-one-one contact made the externship unique.

"One of the things the program has going for it is that you really follow the person all day. I spent time with her from 6 a.m. to when she got home at 9 or 10 at night," Orfield says.

March says the real-life programs offer an opportunity that until recently would have been impossible. "There has been a social upheaval that has enabled women to reach these levels and positions of power," March says of the field-work-oriented mentorship programs.

"These programs make clear to women students that they are part of an ongoing history."

Making Mentoring a Science

Yesterday afternoon Women in Science at Harvard Radcliffe (WISHR) and Radcliffe College cosponsored a brunch at Agassiz House. Fifteen female graduate students in the sciences met and mingled with undergraduate women in science concentrations.

"We only invited women graduate students because we wanted to talk about bringing balance into our lives--about dealing with challenges in their professions," says Adrianna B. Kripke '00, vice president of WISHR.

Kripke says graduate students often can better relate to undergraduates than senor Faculty members. WISHR is attempting to address the drop in female science students as a percentage of total graduate-school students, she says.

Exploring the paths female scientists followed in reaching their career goals is for many female students paramount in any mentor relationship.

Wilson, whose father worked in a research lab, recalled growing up in a house where chemists would come to dinner almost every night, but added that it "never dawned on me to be a chemist."

It was only at Newcombe College, part of Tulane University in New Orleans, that Wilson says she discovered the power of mentorship in terms of role-modeling.

"It was the very great importance of seeing women who had Ph.D.s--who had gone to grad school getting faculty positions--that made it seem not only possible for me to be a female chemist but also to get a Ph.D.," Wilson says. "Then it was really unusual for women to go on...to pursue their intellectual interests."

March compares the Radcliffe Science Alliance--a four-day program for entering female first-years--to inter-departmental science advising in the College.

Both these systems offer a deeper mentorship than what is available in a large, impersonal department, she says. Although mentorship programs may not always make use of top Faculty, Wilson says, students benefit more from such structured relationships than from shorter departmental interactions.

"In a department like chemistry you're given access [through mentorships] to more senior professors and you may meet a few times a month, but it's nothing organized," she says.

A Science Alliance

Wilson cites the six-year-old Science Alliance conference--which Arnotte coordinates--as a classic example of such structured mentorship for women in science concentrations.

Held during the four days preceding orientation week, the Alliance this year offered 37 participants the chance to network with faculty and individuals working in science fields outside of the College.

Alliance participants attend panel discussions and events with male and female Faculty and alumni in an atmosphere Arnotte describes as "oriented to networking, to introducing these women to the people and places of science at Harvard."

March says the program doesn't constrain its participants to technical careers. "It opens a whole world view so that if they work in Chemistry that's not their only option--they can be a patent lawyer or a science writer," she says.

This year for the first time, the Alliance included a panel discussion of alternative science careers. Panel participants included Channel 7 meteorologist Mishelle Michaels and Melissa O'Meara, a forensic chemist from the Massachusetts Crime Lab.

"A lot of the women doctors and scientists kind of talked about how they balanced family--their role as mother and wife--and their careers," says participant Renu N. Gupta '01.

"It was very helpful to me--especially the doctors," Gupta adds. "It kind of opened my eyes a little because my mom's a doctor. Women make so many sacrifices and you don't realize it until hear other women talk about it."

Gupta says the Alliance also gave her access to many Faculty she would feel comfortable contacting again.

"I definitely got the connections," she says.

The networking Gupta alluded to could be key for women at the College. Finding a mentor on your own in science fields can be difficult, students say.

"No one is personally invested in you," says the Radcliffe Mentor Program's Rollins, of her experience with departmental advising. Although concentrators are often assigned advisers, Rollins says mentorship allowed her to explore clinical aspects of psychology she sees as absent from departmental advising.

Because there are few tenured women scientists at Harvard, the pool of possible mentors is small. Some suggest expanding the mentor pool to include both male and female mentors as a simple solution to this problem.

"It's fine if programs like Radcliffe Research Partnership team up women, but it doesn't have to be that way," Holbrook says. "There are just more men scientists out there."

Jennifer M. Kalish '98, a physics and chemistry concentrator who is currently working with Professor of Physics Mara Prentiss, says the question of male versus female mentoring rests with individual students.

"There's no yes or no answer," says Kalish of whether male or female mentors are a better match for female students. "It may not be a gender issue."

Setting Out on Their Own

Wilson, who has participated in the Radcliffe Mentor Program as a mentor for several years, says structured programs make it easier for both students and senior mentor partners to define their relationship in order for the student to gain maximum benefit.

"These programs are good because what you can expect is laid out," Wilson says of mentorships at Radcliffe.

"That's different from a student approaching a Faculty member with neither of them having a map."

However, many students seek out their own mentors, most notably those researching thesis topics and searching for advisers.

"We do have a very structured relationship," says Kalish of Prentiss. Kalish says mentorship programs are helpful, but that a similar mentoring structure can be achieved outside of the established framework.

"A road map is great if you can't find someone in your department, or even if you can," she says.

"There are different avenues to get to the same mentor relationship. The more ways you can facilitate that relationship, the better."

Rita J. Maxwell '98 sees her relationship with her thesis adviser, Professor of History Susan G. Pedersen, as more defined by a "good working dynamic" than by gender role modeling. She says her choice of Pedersen was colored primarily by her preference for an adviser with experience in her area of interest--British history--who she could work well with.

"I can't really say if she could have been interchangeable with a male Faculty member," Maxwell says. "What I like about her is her general personality and her work style. That is essentially why I chose to work with her."

As March notes, often the choice of mentor boils down to finding a female Faculty member, alumna or fellow willing to open both her heart and her home to a student who may enter the program with a purely professional interest.

Such one-on-one mentoring may not only help to foster a comfortable College atmosphere, as March notes, but it may also be essential to women's learning at the College.

According to the Harvard Assessment Seminars First Report, released in 1990 by Professor of Education Richard Light, male students look for mentors who "know the facts," while female students want a mentor who "will get to know [them] personally," someone who shares common interests in and outside of their field of specialty.

The report stated that both male and female students equally value a mentor's ability to refer them to other sources of information, but noted the impact of such mentoring varies along gender lines.

The report stated that relative to men, women's satisfaction with their undergraduate experience is more closely tied to informal encounters and meetings with advisers.

Ethnic Options

For some students, ethnicity is the common bond that allows them to "see themselves" in their mentor, educators say.

McGrath says that although the application form for the Radcliffe Mentor Program allow students to indicate their ethnicity, it is not considered a matching characteristic unless a student specifically requests to be paired with a woman from a similar ethnic background.

"We did have several students last year who requested to have African-American mentors, and we worked that out," she says.

"If a student feels a certain level of comfort begins with some bond between the mentor and herself, we try to achieve that," March says. "That usually takes the form of some kind of commonality, sometimes ethnicity, but I wouldn't prioritize."

Rollins says that although ethnicity is an important factor in choosing a mentor, it must be viewed in the context of other mentorship needs.

"I'm sure there are a lot of black Ph.D. out there that I can't relate to," Rollins says, noting that her mentor is white and their relationship has "flourished."

Rollins notes, however, that more women would have a chance to work with mentors of similar ethnicity if the mentor pool were extended to include more minority mentors.

"The program has had trouble in the past attracting minority mentors, although we've been actively recruiting them recently," she says.

Wilson says increasing the number of women Faculty at the College would extend such mentorship capabilities for all students.

"The critical thing is for us to have Faculty with enough women and minorities in it for students to have inspiration," she says. "Students need to be able to see themselves in those [leadership] roles. That's not the only way to be inspired, but life is tough enough [for women of color] that it's good to have the opportunity."