September 3, 2025 | GradWell Season 2 View transcript ⚠️ JavaScript is required to view the podcast player. Give this episode a listen and let us know what you think! Follow GradWell and join us on our journey to greater well-being for graduate students at the University of Michigan. Guest Dorian (she/her) is a third-year Ph.D. candidate in the Engineering Education Research program at the University of Michigan. She became interested in engineering education research through her work as an undergraduate teaching assistant and as a volunteer with several K-12 STEM outreach organizations. Dorian’s current research explores the relationships between doctoral engineering students and their advisors in an effort to build more psychologically safe advising relationships for Ph.D. students. She is also currently serving as a graduate student staff assistant with Rackham’s MORE committee to dive deeper into the practical applications of her research. Resources Michigan-based Email Dorian Bobbett Thrive Lab Mentoring Others Results in Excellence Well-Being Collective Office of the Ombuds Office of Student Conflict Resolution Graduate Student and Program Consultation Services Guide for Graduate Student Mentees Graduate Student Mentoring Guide Outside the University Amy Edmondson – Psychological Safety Research Transcript Sam Hobson: Hey, welcome to GradWell, a limited series podcast that explores various ways the University of Michigan can support its graduate students and their journey to greater well-being in our everyday lives. Brought to you by Rackham Graduate School. This season, we’ll be talking to members of our academic community whose research intersects various dimensions of well-being. I’m Sam Hobson, a PhD candidate and a GSSA in Rackham’s professional Development and Engagement office. My fellow grad students, it’s time we start placing as much importance on ourselves as we do our work. You’re worth the effort. Dorian Bobbett: Strong mentoring during graduate school has an impact on graduate students, both personally and professionally, in and beyond graduate school. Sam Hobson: Hello, hello. Today’s resource is Dorian Bobbett, a PhD candidate in engineering and a member of Thrive Lab, which is dedicated to engineering education research. Today we’re going to be highlighting Dorian’s work on psychological safety and the graduate advisor relationship, diving into the intersection between professional and emotional well-being. I’m super excited to have y’all with Dorian and me today. Let’s jump in. Dorian Bobbitt, she/her, is a third year PhD candidate in the engineering education research program here at the University of Michigan. She became interested in engineering education research through her work as an undergraduate teaching assistant and as a volunteer with several K-12 STEM outreach organizations. Dorian’s current research explores the relationship between doctoral engineering students and their advisors in an effort to build more psychologically safe advising relationships for PhD students. She is also currently serving as a graduate student staff assistant with Rackham’s MORE committee, to dive deeper into the practical applications of her research. Hi, Dorian. Thank you for being here with me today. Dorian Bobbett: Hi. Thanks for having me. Sam Hobson: So Dorian, to get us started, what brought you to this research focus? You could research anything. Why this? Dorian Bobbett: Yeah, so my background is in chemical engineering, and so I did an undergrad degree in engineering and throughout college I was just noticing how much people were willing to give up their well-being in order to succeed in school, stop taking care of other things beyond homework and everything like that. And that was kind of concerning to me, very concerning to me, that we as people we’re putting so much of ourselves to the side to succeed. And so, when I saw what my friends were experiencing, what I was experiencing in engineering, in STEM more broadly, college as a whole, I think it’s a common experience, and I wanted to do something about it to make a difference. I was involved in some engineering education stuff in undergrad, and I had attended a conference where I got to meet Dr. Karen Jensen, who is a faculty member in the Biomedical engineering department at the University of Michigan who does the engineering education research, so she’s also a part of that program here at U of M. And the work that she was doing was spot on related to student experiences with mental health and well-being and engineering, faculty experiences in engineering with mental health and well-being. So it was a really easy decision for me to decide to want to come and join the Thrive Lab and work on those goals together to try and improve the situations for students at all levels, staff, faculty in engineering, and try and make it just a better culture for everyone in higher education. Sam Hobson: That sounds so wonderfully aligned, Dorian. I love to hear that story and also thank you for trying to make a better environment for all of us here. Dorian Bobbett: Yeah, thanks. Sam Hobson: To lay a foundation for our listeners, what is psychological safety and why does it matter? Dorian Bobbett: Yeah, so that is a great question. It is something that I did not know until I came to grad school and started doing this work, but psychological safety is defined as the ability to make mistakes, take risks, be the truest version of yourself without fear of consequences, humiliation, or rejection. And so, when we’re thinking about working in teams, we draw a lot from Amy Edmondson and her team, Psychological Safety, where the ability to speak up without fear is really important to actual work getting done. One of my favorite examples thinking about grad students in particular is with an engineering or a STEM background, if you’re working in a wetlab, you’re probably spending a whole lot of time trying to get an experiment to work, and you might have an idea about how to get that experiment to work, but if you’re not in a psychologically safe environment, you’re nervous or scared to try that idea because if it goes wrong, then people have different opinions of you or think that you are not cut out to be doing the work. So, whether or not that idea would’ve succeeded or failed, we’ll never know. So we’re kind of losing that innovation when we’re not in psychologically safe environments, which is why I think it’s so important in grad school, in particular, when we’re engaging in new research and new projects and everything that we’re doing as students for the very first time, to be in a psychologically safe space where it is safe to make mistakes and to fail and to learn from those too. Sam Hobson: I love this conceptualization of psychological safety in terms of innovation. I think that that is so important. I think oftentimes when we think of psychologically safe might just be about existing and existing and feeling safe, good, comfortable, like you said, be your truest self. But not just be your truest self, but expand your truest self, which I think is where the innovation part comes in. And I think that is so cool, this idea of expansion and that you have to feel safe in order to be able to take that leap and that risk, and that is where the next frontier comes from. And as graduate students here and anywhere, that’s what we’re trying to do, develop that next frontier. And so, yeah, psychological safety sounds like it really matters for that. Dorian Bobbett: Yeah, absolutely. The whole point of school is to grow and learn, at least to me. And so being able to do that is so important. Sam Hobson: Definitely, definitely, definitely. So what does your lab study, Dorian, specifically in the realm of psychological safety? Dorian Bobbett: Yeah, so our work specifically is looking at the experiences of doctoral engineering students with their advisors. So the relationship between advisors’ mentoring skills, students’ feelings of psychological safety, and then student outcomes, so students’ mental health and well-being outcomes as well as students work-related outcomes. The project that we’re looking at specifically with that psychological safety consisted of a survey of over 400 doctoral engineering students asking about those experiences with their advisor, their feelings of psychological safety, and their outcomes related to mental health and well-being and work or research outcomes. And then we followed up with some interviews of these surveys participants to explain some more about the answers that they gave on the survey, some other experiences with their advisor, experiences with feeling psychologically safe or not. And we completed a different set of interviews where we asked students to really just walk us through, step-by-step, their experiences with their advisors, kind of give us a timeline of psychological safety or lack thereof as they interacted with their advisor over several years, laying out what the key points were in that relationship, where they felt really safe, where they didn’t feel as safe, what those impacts were. Sam Hobson: I appreciate how robust this study is that you’re hitting it from so many different angles, longitudinally as well, I think, will just provide really rich data. But Dorian, why should we study this in the first place? Why is a strong relationship with your academic advisor important in terms of psychological safety, in terms of well-being for graduate students? Dorian Bobbett: Yeah, absolutely. So there is a ton of research around mentoring that exists currently that’s found that strong mentoring during graduate school has an impact on graduate students, both personally and professionally, in and beyond graduate school. When we’re looking just very big picture, it’s accepted as a truth in mentoring work that mentorship impacts doctoral students and that impact lasts a long time. And so, if we want to continue to cultivate this future of academics, these future researchers, we need to be good mentors to them. However, faculty still go through very little mentoring training. It’s oftentimes not required as parts of becoming a doctoral advisor. A lot of the times we come from graduate school and we base our faculty mentoring skills moving forwards off of the ones that we experienced as graduate students ourselves. And that’s hard, because faculty advisors have to serve in so many different roles for their students. Not only are they teaching classes and running a research lab, but your individual relationship with your doctoral students, you have to be a teacher, a career counselor, an emotional support. And so, if we’re not supporting faculty in doing that, then we can’t expect our students to be successful either because they’re not getting the mentorship that they need. Sam Hobson: I don’t think I ever really thought about all of the different hats that a faculty advisor needs to wear in terms of the mentoring of their graduate students, if they want to do it well and they want to do it right. That feels like a big ask, particularly as you said, if they don’t receive any type of guidance or training on it whatsoever. Dorian Bobbett: Yeah, absolutely. We just expect everyone to be good at this thing that’s like 12 different things. Sam Hobson: Yeah. Dorian Bobbett: I think a lot of grad students are in the same position as me where I see my advisor more often than I see my mom. Sam Hobson: Right. Dorian Bobbett: So you kind of want a really good relationship with that person that you’re spending five plus years with, and you want to be able to trust that they also know what they’re doing to support you. Sam Hobson: Right, right. Yeah, that’s interesting that you mentioned how trust is a component of this relationship. Dorian Bobbett: Yeah, absolutely. I think that trust is a big thing and it’s not immediate, I think, for lots of folks. And it’s building that trust that takes time, and faculty and students need support in order to get to that point. Sam Hobson: When you say building trust takes time, that makes sense when you think about it, that building a relationship takes time, and perhaps maybe that’s why we’re in a PhD program for so long. Maybe it’s simply so that we can build those relationships that eventually will set us up for success. Because I can just imagine coming in and this expectation that you’re supposed to A, know who your advisor should be off the bat and B, that you’re supposed to have a good and close working relationship with them almost immediately are expectations that feel difficult to shake as graduate students. I’m really fortunate, I don’t know if it’s like this in every program, but in the sociology department, they assign you an advisor your first year, but you don’t have to stick with them. It’s just somebody to come in to talk to get to know the department with. But you are not necessarily expected, but it is normal for you to adjust who your advisor is after entering and getting to better know the department. And I don’t know if that’s the case everywhere, but I have found that to be a really fortunate and wonderful practice of the sociology department. Dorian Bobbett: And I think that that’s a big issue is that there isn’t a standard. I think that maybe in a lot of biological disciplines, we see this idea of rotations during your first year, so you’re shifting between labs and getting a taste of lots of different labs before you pick one. There are some programs where you come in with a specific person, and it’s that person that gives you an offer to even come to the university in the first place, and then if you have to change advisors for whatever reason, because there’s so many different reasons that you might need to shift, there’s not systems in place to support you. And so, it’s all just a big convoluted thing that we don’t talk about when students are looking to go into grad school and it’s so different everywhere that you’re not sure what to expect. Sam Hobson: This is fascinating. I don’t think I ever realized how much of a big, tangled bowl of spaghetti that this is. Do you know what I mean? I hadn’t realized. I mean, of course we know that your advisor relationship is so important, but to think about it in terms of it’s this thing that has to happen, needs to happen, needs to be good, and yet we do nothing towards making sure that that happens is fascinating. Dorian Bobbett: Yeah. So it’s all this … I love that, the big bowl of spaghetti. And then on top of that, you’re throwing in human emotions and human relationships, and so it’s all messy and guidance, I think, would be great. Sam Hobson: Yeah, I think I have to agree. Dorian, you said that the research has shown that advisor relationships are important for not just graduate students professional trajectories, but also their personal lives. Can you say more about that? It never really occurred to me. Dorian Bobbett: Yeah, there is a lot of work that’s specifically looked at students like mental health throughout their graduate degree programs and has found that strong mentoring has improved graduate student outcomes in their mental health and wellbeing space. And a lot of the times, when we’re asking students about their stressors or their mental health, they will reference experiences with their advisors or confusion around relationships or things like that, that really speak to the impact that an advisor has on students’ personal lives. Because grad school becomes so much of a student’s life, I feel like, for however long you’re there, that it’s tricky to balance those personal and professional realms for anyone. And then when there’s somebody that plays such a big role in kind of both parts of that, that can be even more difficult to manage. Sam Hobson: Yeah. Yeah. Personal and professional so intertwined on a day-to-day basis, that makes sense that this person would have such an impact on our entire lives. I don’t know. This feels really big. I don’t think I realized how big this was. Dorian Bobbett: Yeah, it can be big, but it can be the best kind of big or it can be a bad big. And so, I think our goal is to make it the best kind of big. Sam Hobson: Yes, yes. I am really fortunate to have an advisor who has made it the best kind of big, and I wish that for every single person. It matters, it really does. Dorian, you have explained that y’all have engaged in robust research to come up with these answers around psychological safety and graduate students. What have you found? Dorian Bobbett: Yeah, to put it pretty bluntly, the survey results have made it very clear that students’ feelings of psychological safety with their advisor, students’ perceptions of their advisor’s mentoring skills and abilities, and student mental health and wellbeing are very, very strongly positively correlated. Basically what that means is that there is a very strong relationship between advisor mentoring, student feelings of psychological safety, and student wellbeing, which supports things that have already existed. But looking specifically at these engineering doctoral students, those really strong relationships speak to the fact that student wellbeing is intertwined so deeply with psychologically safe environments and mentoring experiences. We’ve also found that advisor mentoring skills are positively correlated with team psychological safety. So when students were asked about their feelings of safety in their lab group as a whole, mentoring skills were also a predictor of how safe students felt in that team. How psychologically safe a student felt in their larger research group is related to their advisor’s mentoring abilities, kind of speaking to that idea of lab culture being cultivated by an advisor. Sam Hobson: And so, you’re saying that the advisor of a team, their mentoring of that team shapes the psychological safety of the team, or are you saying individuals advisors and then these individuals go to a team that is separate from their advisor? Dorian Bobbett: What we were looking at specifically was a lab group with a shared advisor. Sam Hobson: Okay. Dorian Bobbett: So a student reporting on, “I feel like my advisor has these mentoring skills.” If they had stronger mentoring skills, the student also reported feeling more psychologically safe in their team, in their lab, working together with each other. Sam Hobson: Dorian, what are mentoring skills? Dorian Bobbett: Yeah, maybe that’s a really great question that I should have talked about first. We used the mentoring competency assessment when we were asking students to write their advisor’s mentoring skills. So these things included questions around how students felt like their mentors were able to accurately estimate their knowledge about content or about the research they were doing, how much they admired the way that their mentor navigated interpersonal relationships, things like that that you’re thinking of as a grad student you want role modeled for you is what we were asking students about how they felt like their advisor was doing at modeling those things or understanding their experiences as a student. Sam Hobson: These mentoring skills that you mentioned seem like very human things. Do you know what I mean? This feels like very, not necessarily academic things, but human being things. And as I’m sure you know, sometimes it’s hard to relate to the human beyond the academic with some of our professors. And so, is that a big ask of them? What I mean is that for some folks who are, maybe that’s just not their inclination or how they interact with people, and yet they’re still going to have graduate students that they advise and will need to mentor. Are there other ways that one can mentor? Are these specific things, the ones that are necessary for us to feel psychologically safe in this type of relationship? Dorian Bobbett: So that’s a really good question, and I think this is where advisor matching comes in to play. I never want to tell somebody, “You need to look for exactly this, this, and this in an advisor,” because I am going to be very different than you are when we’re looking for an advisor. Maybe we’d be closer than we’d think we would be, but there are different things that everyone needs from that advising relationship. And so, it’s more important that you have those conversations with your advisor and feel like the way that they are doing things aligns with the way that you need things to be done as a student. So if you, as a student, don’t want to have that type of more personal connection with your advisor, if you want a teacher, then that is totally okay. However, if you have an advisor that wants to do lab bowling every Friday and wants to bring their kids around the lab, maybe that’s not a great match, and that’s okay to recognize that that’s not going to be a good match. But it’s about the response to that not a good match type of situation. If it’s you feel like you need to get a new advisor, that’s wonderful. If you feel like you can’t get a new advisor and you’re stuck in that relationship, it’s probably not going to work out great for anybody. Sam Hobson: What if what we want to study and the person who studies that doesn’t match with our needs for an advisor or a mentor? Dorian Bobbett: Yeah. What I would say is that there is a requirement of a good mentor to adapt to some of their needs of their mentees. The way that my advisor mentors me is not going to be identical to the way that my lab mates get their mentoring from her, even though she’s the same person. She adapts slightly to the variations in our needs. We’re still generally aligned on things, but there is another role of a mentor, if we can just keep adding things onto the roles of advisors’ plate, to engage in those conversations about mentoring needs and really care about how a relationship is going to proceed, even if it’s not the best match. Sam Hobson: I see. So how does a graduate student choose a good advisor? How do we have those types of conversations? That sounds really scary, Dorian, especially if we’re new to the department. Dorian Bobbett: Yes, and first and foremost, I think that we need to give opportunities for these conversations to happen where the folks with less power in that relationship feel like they can speak up safely. So we need to create these psychologically safe environments for grad students to engage in those conversations with their advisors early and often. Sam Hobson: Okay. Dorian Bobbett: Right now, I don’t think that exists in a lot of places. It’s tough to ask for what you need because you might be stepping on toes or you might be upsetting somebody else. It’s also really tough to hear that you’re not meeting somebody’s needs. And so, creating spaces where those conversations can be had, I think is one of the biggest things for students once they get into grad school and start having that relationship with an advisor, whatever that process looks like early on. Sam Hobson: And so, we have the how, but what does that conversation look like? Does it say, “I’m not getting what I need from you, and I don’t know what it is that I need, and so you’re supposed to know what it is that I need,” or do we need to do work on our part to be able to come with, “These are the things that I need, and are you able to meet that?,” or is that too direct? Are we asking too much? Do you know what I mean? Dorian Bobbett: Yeah. I think that there’s a lot of different ways that you could take it based on what you’re comfortable with. I am always pro a direct conversation just because it reduces some of the confusion around what’s possibly being needed, what’s being said, what’s being heard, which can very much be different things sometimes. But I recognize that I am also in a place of privilege where I can have those conversations with my advisor and feel very safe in doing so. If a student doesn’t feel safe to engage that way, there are a lot of resources that Rackham’s MORE committee has put out on how to be an effective mentor. They have a full faculty guide and they have a full student guide about how to be a good mentee, essentially. And they facilitate workshops every semester and during the summer for faculty and students to attend separately and then come together and sit down and actually work through a mentoring plan. That would be a written document that they have a template for that you can edit to include whatever is important for your mentoring relationship, and have that open conversation about, “This is what I’m expecting as a student, what are you expecting as a faculty member?” Or vice versa, and then come to conclusions together about what that will look like moving forward. So that’s one way to have that conversation facilitated, and I think it’s a great resource. Sam Hobson: Yeah, that’s wonderful. I love this idea of a mentoring plan. I am very senior in my studies now, but I would’ve loved to have created something like that with my advisor at the start. Dorian Bobbett: Yeah. And the beautiful thing about mentoring plans is not only are they written down, so you can reference them later, but you can also change them as you grow as a student. My advisor and I, we revisit ours at least once a year, because I need different things going into my third year than I did starting out as a PhD student for the first time. And it’s okay that those needs have changed, and so we need to talk about what those new needs are for me to actually get the support that I need. Sam Hobson: Yes, that makes sense. There needs to be a consistent never ending conversation about … I mean, I guess it’s just like any relationship really, right? We have to talk about, at a higher level, of is this working? How is this working? How can we better both show up for each other to ensure that everybody is getting their needs met and that this is the most productive, effective, and giving relationship as possible? Dorian Bobbett: Absolutely. Sam Hobson: That makes sense. Dorian Bobbett: Yep. Sam Hobson: Dorian, do you have any other resources that you can share with us to help us better navigate the advisor relationship? Dorian Bobbett: Yeah, so I highly recommend all of MORE’s resources. So that committee out of Rackham, MORE is an acronym that stands for Mentoring Others Results and Excellence. And their website has all of the faculty student guides. There’s even a guide for department or program chairs for how to facilitate better mentoring in their realm of things. If you’re having any concerns with mentors, if things are arising and you need more direct conflict resolution support. I always really love, at the University of Michigan, we have lots of folks in the ombuds person roles that you are welcome to utilize as a student or using OSCR, the conflict resolution services on campus are always highly recommended as well. And I think this probably will be talked about a lot, the university well-being resources have lots of mental health and well-being resource care so that you can also take care of yourself as you’re trying to navigate any relationship. I think that it’s really important to take a step back sometimes from all of that and focus on your own well-being before you can try and navigate some of those trickier relationships. Sam Hobson: Thank you, Dorian. I have a question. You mentioned conflict resolution, and there are a bunch of resources that can help you engage in that. How does one start in terms of addressing the fact that there even is a conflict that also feels a little scary? Dorian Bobbett: Yeah. And that is scary. I think one of the tricky parts about being a doctoral student is power dynamics are absolutely present and they’re absolutely difficult to navigate at any point. If you are starting to feel like there is a conflict arising between you and your advisor that needs to be addressed, I would suggest finding another trusted faculty member, whether it be your advisor’s department chair or program chair, or somebody on your committee that you feel like you can have that candid conversation with that maybe you’re a little bit nervous to have that candid conversation with your advisor and get some other thoughts on it too. Because sometimes, as a graduate student, there’s a lot of stuff that I don’t know about how faculty roles work, so if something’s happening and I don’t understand it, but I feel nervous to ask my advisor about it, maybe there’s somebody that I do feel comfortable asking about it that also understands it. And that could maybe clear up some things if it’s more related to miscommunication or a misunderstanding. If there is a direct conflict or something needs to change in the relationship, like I said, I am pro sitting down and having that conversation openly and candidly. However, I know that can be very difficult and sometimes it can be easier to have somebody else present to facilitate that conversation. So that’s when I would recommend reaching out to the office of the ombuds or other resources to maybe serve as a facilitator for that conversation if you feel like you need that type of support. Sam Hobson: Thank you, Dorian. As you were talking, I was reflecting on what you were saying and also on our entire conversation, and I don’t know if your research can speak to this or if the literature out there can, but could someone have a relationship with their advisor where they’re not getting the mentoring that they need, but this person does the work that they want to do and then have mentor that isn’t their academic advisor, would their life still feel relatively psychologically safe if they were able to receive mentorship outside of their academic advisor relationship? Dorian Bobbett: One thing that we do recommend is building out a mentoring network. We talked about all the hats that advisors have to wear, and so to get extra support in any of those areas is phenomenal. If you’re banking on one person to meet all of those needs all the time, chances are at some point there’s going to be somewhere where you could use some extra support. So having a mentoring network or a group of people that can support you in different areas is so great and so helpful for you, not just in the work that you’re doing and getting that mentorship, but professionally growing your network is always a positive in academic settings. And so, it’s really highly recommended that you engage in multiple relationships and get the support you need from other faculty members, other staff members, people outside of the university. If you need that support, those are great places to look for it. I think that if, at the very root of things, if things are just really, really mismatched between you and a primary advisor, that can have lasting impacts and possibly lead to needing to get either a co-advisor more directly on the project, so you can balance that. But those relationships and facilitating those can also be tricky. So broadly, I would encourage expanding mentoring networks while also caring for your advising relationship directly very deeply. Sam Hobson: Okay. Thank you. That makes sense. Dorian, before we go, was there anything surprising that you uncovered in your research? Dorian Bobbett: Yeah. I think that the most surprising things came out of the interviews that we were doing with folks that just spoke to how normalized it’s become to have a bad relationship with an advisor. And I think that that’s a problem. So I think that some of the most surprising things that I heard were not just these stories about bad things that happened in advising relationships, but when we were talking to students that had great relationships with their advisor, they always prefaced how lucky they were to have a good advisor, or they shared stories about, “Oh, I didn’t have this experience, but my friend had a terrible, so-and-so happened.” And I think that that spoke a lot to, not a question that we were asking, but just understanding more how much it’s become so normal for students to not have good advising relationships. I think we even did it during this interview talking about how great it was that we love our advisor. Sam Hobson: Totally did. Yeah. That’s fascinating and also really disheartening, I have to say, because what does that mean for us as graduate students? Grad school is so hard. It’s hard enough already, and for a bad relationship with one’s advisor to just be expected, feels like we’re setting ourselves up for a lack of optimal success, particularly because then it seems as if we’re not asking for more, this is just what it is, and we accept this and don’t demand what we deserve or even ask for it and know how to ask for it. And so, I also want to give compassion to faculty members, because like we were saying at the beginning, if they receive absolutely no training in what it means to be an advisor, and people are like, “Most advisors are bad advisors,” it’s like, well, maybe it’s not them. As much as we maybe want to blame it on them. It might be easier to look at the individual instead of the system that is in place around the why of this all. Dorian Bobbett: Yeah, I totally agree. I think that we need to be better supporting our faculty in order to better support our students. Of course, we also need to be offering more resources to our students to advocate for themselves when they need these changes made in their relationships or need support in standing up for themselves and what they should be getting. But I also think that it just speaks to the cyclic nature of academia where we are having students have these relationships. We are not intervening at all. We are not either helping them as students, nor are we training them as faculty, and then we want change to be made when they become faculty members. So I think that that’s part of the reason why it was so surprising to me to just start thinking about the, “Oh, but I’m so lucky.” Why am I lucky? I think we’ve done nothing to support these people that need the support. I shouldn’t be surprised by that, should I? Sam Hobson: No. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I hope that this episode can not only help people in learning how to advocate for themselves and even start the conversations that need to be had with their advisors, but also when they do have these conversations maybe come with this smidge of compassion for what it’s like to be on the other side. Dorian Bobbett: Definitely. Yeah, and I think that’s so important for everyone to take a step back and recognize the human being involved as the graduate student, as a faculty member, there’s so much going on in everyone’s lives that plays a role in our lives at work, at school, everything like that. Leading with compassion I think is a great way to engage meaningfully in change around a relationship. And it also gives a starting point of being human beings instead of a research machine. Sam Hobson: Dorian, I love that. I think so often we as little baby research machines are expected to be just that and also expect that from the people around us. But like you said, we are human beings interacting with other human beings, and I think it’s easy to forget that sometimes in academia, right? Dorian Bobbett: Oh, for sure. Sam Hobson: And so, how do we come at it from that level, at a level that’s not necessarily always celebrated in our fields, in our institutions as much as being research machines? And so, I’m thinking maybe we can have the conversation, but maybe we have it over coffee instead of in the lab or in the office where it is the environment of research machines. Or maybe we can take a walk or go to dinner. I’ve never been to dinner with my advisor and I would love to go to dinner with my advisor, and I’m sure other people have had that type of interaction, but I’m sure a lot of us haven’t. Maybe we can start to be a little brave and suggest how to add a little humanity into these relationships, and maybe it will be really well received. Who knows? Dorian Bobbett: Right? I think all of us want that type of humanity in everything that we’re doing, just as a reminder. And so, I think that those are great ideas to try and change that culture around what grad school is and what it’s supposed to be and what it’s leading us towards. Sam Hobson: Yes. Yes, definitely. Dorian Bobbett: Thank you so much for having me on to talk about all of these things. Sam Hobson: Oh, Dorian, thank you. I have learned so much. I’ve grown so much. I’m so grateful for this conversation. This has been really, really wonderful. Thank you for being here with us today. Dorian Bobbett: Yeah, thank you so much. Sam Hobson: Okay. Here are three takeaways for your wellbeing journey. One, cultivating the trust that’s required for a strong graduate advisor relationship takes time and intentional effort on our part, so it’s important to make sure to have those conversations about the things that you need early and often. Two, the best way to address our mentoring needs and our professional wellbeing is to make sure that we don’t rely on just one person to get all of our needs met. Make sure to cultivate a network of mentors to ensure that all parts of you are supported. And three, if you’re finding it hard to find the right advisor or cultivate a relationship with the one that you have, that feels really good. Check out Rackham’s mentoring committee, MORE, M-O-R-E. They have a number of resources, workshops and guides that you should definitely be taking advantage of. There are a lot of unknowns in this process, and you do not have to go through them alone. Check out our website for all the resources Dorian mentioned and more at rackham.umich.edu/gradwell. You can reach out to Dorian with any questions that you have at dbobbet, B-O-B-B-E-T-T, @umich.edu, and you can contact us about the podcast at [email protected]. Make sure to join us next time when I chat with Dr. Terra Molengraff, Program Director of First Generation Initiatives about how to decode the academy. See you then. Hey, hardworking grad student. Thank you for turning into GradWell. I hope you can take something away from this episode with you. If you like what you heard, be sure to write a review, like, and subscribe wherever you get to podcasts. For more information, check us out on social at UMich Grad School.
