THE BENEFITS OF TRIDENT’S PH.D. MENTOR PROGRAM
Earning a doctorate degree is more hiking to the top of Mount Everest and less strolling through Central Park on a warm summer’s day. Students with the smarts and perseverance to reach the highest summit in academia still require a helping hand, and there is no better source of advice than someone who has previously completed this journey.
As part of their commitment to student success, Trident offers a Ph.D. Mentor program, which has been designed to help guide candidates to the completion of their doctorate. Dr. Carlos Cardillo, a professor in the College of Health and Human Services, serves as a Ph.D. Mentor.
“The mentor-student relationship is one that is initiated at the start of the doctoral program, with meetings becoming “more frequent and more intense as work on the dissertation progresses,” according to Dr. Cardillo.
Students are encouraged to work with multiple mentors, allowing them to experience a diversity of experiences and different mentoring styles. Key components of the mentoring process include serving as an advisor, providing real world insight, academic and professional opportunities, ethical values, and academic and professional integrity guidance. All of these components should be part of a support system that provides emotional encouragement and an outside perspective.
While key for the development of the candidate, the Ph.D. mentor-protégé relationship is definitely not a one-way street.
“The mentoring process is definitely a reciprocal relationship,” Dr. Cardillo said. “In many cases, students come into a Ph.D. program with many years of experience with their dissertation subject matter. Although the mentor will be instrumental in guiding the student in many aspects of the research process, this can only be achieved properly by listening to the student, understanding how they think, what the goal of the study is, and how they want to conduct their study.”
Learn more about Trident’s online doctoral programs and some of the talented men and women who have graduated from our four doctoral level programs.
