Mentorship Program 

• Mentorship 1 (M1): Summer 

• Mentorship 2 (M2): Academic Year

• Mentorship 3 (M3): Extended 

• Mentorship 1 (M1): Summer

  • Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) Certification Program

  • Burke County Finance

  • Exploring Joara Foundation

  • Western Carolina University: Highlands Biological Station, Mountain Heritage Center, Rapid Center 

  • Western Piedmont Community College: Simulation and Game Development

• Mentorship 2 (M2): Academic Year

  • Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) Certification Program

  • Environmental Conservation and Ecology

  • UNC Health Blue Ridge

• Mentorship 3 (M3): Extended

• Summer Mentorship (Mentorship 1, M1):  The Summer Mentorship program is offered to NCSSM Durham and Morganton students as well as NCSSM Online students for 5-7 weeks in the summer. Students live on campus and are provided transportation to and from their mentors' sites. As part of the Summer Research & Innovation Program (SRIP), Summer Mentorship students can interact with the larger community of other student researchers and innovators when they are not off-campus for research. Participating in Summer Mentorship excludes students from participating in other SRIP opportunities offered by NCSSM and full commitment is required.

  • Durham M1 students are typically on-site Monday through Friday, 8AM-4PM.

  • Morganton M1 students are typically on-site most often Monday through Friday for full days, scheduling is dependent on the professional partner.

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• Academic Year Mentorship (Mentorship 2, M2): The Academic Year Mentorship Program is offered to only NCSSM residential students at their respective campus during the school year for both semesters of their senior year. Students travel to their research location twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays, during afternoon blocks and flexible use time. Students will typically remain on site from 1PM-4PM (not including travel time). The Academic Year Mentorship program counts as credit for one of the five core classes each student is required to take during the academic year.

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• Extended Mentorship (Mentorship 3, M3): The Extended Mentorship Program is offered to only NCSSM residential students at their respective campus. It is a combination of Summer Mentorship and Academic Year Mentorship. Students will participate in research for 5-7 weeks during the summer (see below). During their senior year, students will continue their research by traveling to their research site twice a week (Tuesday/Thursday, 1PM-4PM not including travel time). The Extended Mentorship program counts as credit for one of the five core classes each student is required to take during the academic year. As the program begins in the summer, Extended Mentorship is part of the Summer Research & Innovation Program (SRIP). Participating in Extended Mentorship excludes students from participating in other SRIP opportunities offered by NCSSM. 

  • During the summer, Durham M1 students are typically on-site Monday through Friday, 8AM-4PM.

  • During the summer, Morganton M1 students are typically on-site most often Monday through Friday for full days, scheduling is dependent on the professional partner.

As part of Summer Mentorship (M1/M3) commitment, students must attend all dates of this program within SRIP and live on campus. No exceptions for absences will be made for any reason (including academic competitions, family vacations, school sponsored events, summer service etc.). 

As part of the Academic Year Mentorship (M2/M3), students must prioritize and fully commit to the protected and required Mentorship working and travel time from 12:40-5:30PM on Tuesdays/Thursdays for the Senior Mentorship core course (which includes blocks G2L/G2/F2/F4L/F4/G4, flexible use time T/R and one additional block for a class meeting each week). This includes prioritizing the Mentorship Program over athletics and other extracurricular activities on Tuesday/Thursday afternoons from 12:40-5:30PM

MR4051 Mentorship: Senior Research II

Prerequisite(s): Requires acceptance to the NCSSM Mentorship 2 or Mentorship 3 program via application reviewed by the Director of Mentorship and Research and committee and successful completion of MR3080 Mentorship Explorations with a grade of B or higher and an approved and committed mentor for the Mentorship experience (unless approved by the Director of Mentorship and Research).

Corequisite(s): None

Graduation Requirements Met: One elective credit

Schedule Requirements Met: One of five courses required each semester

Meeting Times: Three periods per week and two labs

Mentorship: Senior Research is a course required for students in Mentorship 2 and Mentorship 3 Programs. This course gives students ownership of their Mentorship opportunity by facilitating students’ professional and personal skills including reflecting on and achieving personal goals, crafting and delivering an effective message, and successfully engaging in a research project. Students will continue to investigate their curiosity and interests by making foundational connections between primary research or professional literature or sources and their own project. As part of this course, students will spend two afternoons per week engaging in their Mentorship experience with an off-campus mentor. A necessary part of that experience includes continuing to build their portfolio of materials demonstrating their growth and skill development, including a set of readings that relate to their particular area of Mentorship interest, a research proposal, a final professional product to communicate their findings, and a record of their reflection and activities throughout the journey. In addition, all students will be required to craft and deliver an oral presentation of their findings to a broad audience at the NCSSM Research Symposium community-wide event in the spring.

• NCSSM’s Summer Research and Innovation Programs Nurture Critical Skills Across Disciplines

• NCSSM Students Gain Full-Time, Professional Research Experience During Summer Mentorship

• The thinkers, makers, and doers of NCSSM’s Summer Research & Innovation Program

• Permission to fail: Trial, error, and deep learning in NCSSM’s Summer Research & Innovation Program

• Sumani Nunna advanced biofuels research as NCSSM student

• UNC: NCSSM faculty members win undergraduate research award

• Aneesh Agarwal '17 blends biology, research, and entrepreneurship

• NCSSM administrators publish in Gifted Child Today

• 2016-17 cohort of 89 student researchers begin mentorships

• Designing improvements for real-world problems

• Monsanto grant helps fund Mentorships

• Burroughs Wellcome Fund announces $1 million gift

All Mentorship courses are required as well as travel off site and traveling time (which is outside of the course blocks), so students should consider the commitment when making decisions about participating in the program. 

The commitment to Mentorship takes priority over extracurricular activities including school-sponsored athletics practices and games, academic competitions, and doctor's appointments that could be scheduled for other dates/times.  

Mentorship should we viewed as a job and students are serving as an ambassador of NCSSM to the external partners who are volunteering to partner with NCSSM Mentorship Programs. If you wish to participate in research, but cannot make a commitment to Mentorship, please consider applying for the Summer Research & Innovation Program or registering for a REX course or a research-based J-term in your area of interest. 

Each campus offers a variety of partnering institutions and organizations based on the regional assets and the interest of volunteers in partnering and partners participating vary each year.  Students have worked in an extremely wide range of disciplines. Some fields explored by students include art history, marine biology, law, philosophy, marketing, engineering, astrophysics, psychology, clinical/biomedical,, finance, computer science, and EMT certification.  

Transportation is provided during scheduled Mentorship times of 8:00-5:00 Monday through Friday during the summer and 12:30-4:00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the academic year. The Mentorship Program cannot provide transportation outside of these scheduled blocks,  If a unique circumstance or opportunity arises for a Mentorship student, transportation can be requested by contacting the Directors of Mentorship and Research (Dr. Shoemaker, Durham and Ms. Burkins, Morganton).

Students accepted to the SRIP/Mentorship will only be offered a single opportunity, so choose your rankings carefully.   

For example, if a student is accepted for their 1st choice, the student will not be considered for their 2nd, 3rd, or 4th ranked opportunities.  Students' preference of which opportunity they would most like to participate in is identified by their rank of each opportunity within their SRIP/Mentorship application.

Residential students are not eligible for SRIP/Mentorship if they are offered and accept positions in the departmental program RSci (including RBio, RChem, RCompSci, RPhys).  RSci and the Mentorship Programs overlap in F/G senior year and overlap in summer commitment.   Residential students in other departmental programs such as RHum and RMath and Applications in Entrepreneurship can apply to Mentorship, however the Mentorship Program may prioritize students that have not yet been served in research and innovation at NCSSM.

A primary goal of NCSSM research and innovation is to provide an opportunity for as many of our students as possible.  However, students are encouraged to apply to all opportunities they are interested in committing to since all opportunities are competitive and often have more applicants than student slots available.  

If students are accepted to or choosing to participate in multiple opportunities, it is strongly recommended that they reflect carefully and honestly about managing the commitment of taking on multiple research/innovation opportunities. Be honest with about whether you can give your best to more than one research/innovation opportunity.