Abstracts

Presented by Susan Ellis-Felege - Email: susan.felege@email.und.edu

Mentoring plays a crucial role in both the educational and professional world of Science, Technology, Engineer, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines, as it provides students and young employees with sponsorship and networking opportunities. Despite the importance of mentoring for recruiting and retaining bright and innovative individuals to STEM careers, few institutions provide formal training about best practices or even general guidelines. While research in this area is still relatively scarce, what does exist suggests that mentor and mentee identities (e.g. gender, hunter) play a large role in how a relationship forms and persists. Men seeking to mentor women entering the field of waterfowl ecology for example would need to structure their approach differently than if they sought to mentor another male. Understanding how these social relationships should be approached and managed has become more critical as the structure of STEM disciplines like waterfowl ecology shifts from male-dominated to a more balanced gender ratio. We hope to provide an opportunity for reflection and a springboard for future discussions about how to enhance conservation of the resources for the generations ahead and increase retention of students in the waterfowl profession.