Being a Mentor in open source projects

Mentoring is a well-known way to help newcomers to Open Source Software (OSS) projects overcome initial contribution barriers. Through mentoring, newcomers learn to acquire essential technical, social, and organizational skills. Despite the importance of OSS mentors, they are understudied in the literature. Understanding who OSS project mentors are, the challenges they face, and the strategies they use can help OSS projects better support mentors’ work. In this paper, we employ a two-stage study to comprehensively investigate mentors in OSS. First, we identify the characteristics of mentors in the Apache Software Foundation, a large OSS community, using an online survey. We found that less experienced volunteer contributors are less likely to take on the mentorship role. Second, through interviews with OSS mentors (n=18), we identify the challenges that mentors face and how they mitigate them. In total, we identified 25 general mentorship challenges and 7 sub-categories of challenges regarding task recommendation. We also identified 13 strategies to overcome the challenges related to task recommendation. Our results provide insights for OSS communities, formal mentorship programs, and tool builders who design automated support for task assignment and internship.

Developing a Peer Mentorship Program in Human Factors Academia

Peer mentorship programs that pair more experienced students (i.e., mentors) with less experienced students (i.e., mentees) can have an effective, positive impact on university students’ personal, academic, and professional outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to describe the process and lessons learned in the creation of a peer mentorship program in a Human Factors and Ergonomics (HF/E) academic department. Through a combination of peer networking opportunities and skill development workshops, the mentorship program outlined in this paper aims to promote students’ academic and professional growth. Take-aways that can be utilized by other HF/E academia departments interested in starting or revamping their own peer mentorship programs are included.

A-45 Closing the Gap in the Neuropsychology Pipeline Via Mentorship Focusing on African American Students

Objective A core mission of the Society for Black Neuropsychology (SBN) is to increase the representation of neuropsychologists, students, and scholars from diverse backgrounds. As such, SBN developed a 12-month mentoring program for trainees at all levels. The SBN Mentorship Program includes four components: mentoring where mentees are paired with a mentor based on interest and needs; professional development webinars; application materials resources; virtual social hours. Methods First, a call for mentors and mentees was distributed via SBN’s and related listservs and social media. Second, pairings were based on mentee training level, clinical/research interest, needs (e.g., applying to doctoral programs, cultural competency, securing funding), and additional preferences (e.g., matched on the same racial/ethnic background, sex/gender, geographical location). Surveys will be distributed at 6-months and upon completion of the mentorship program to evaluate pairings, webinars, and overall impact of the program. Results A total of 60 mentors from diverse backgrounds and different levels of training enrolled. Thirty-five underrepresented minority (URM) trainees were matched with mentors based on their level of training, interest, and needs. The mentee cohort comprised of undergraduate/post-baccalaureate (30%), masters (5%), and doctoral students (60%), and post-doctoral fellows (5%). The cohort was approximately 77% female and all mentees identified as an URM in academia (URM: 85.7% Black, 14.3% Latinx). Conclusion Mentorship programs represent a vital but often overlooked component of trainee success. Mentorship programs sponsored by organizations such as SBN can help increase the number of URM students in neuropsychology and provide the mentorship needed to navigate barriers URM students often encounter in academia.