Faculty Mentors

Being a McNair Faculty Mentor means supervising an undergraduate student who will participate in research during his/her junior and senior years at Cal Poly Humboldt. Faculty Mentors should be committed to the McNair Scholar Program mission and have the capacity and desire to support their McNair Scholars directly throughout the program. The program administration is dedicated to focusing on a strong mentor-mentee relationship while being committed to the training of future scholars from first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented backgrounds. 

The most critical feature of the McNair Scholars Program is the Faculty Mentor/McNair Scholar relationship.  Faculty Mentors provide exposure and insight essential for the McNair Scholar to understand the skills needed to succeed academically.  Their time, energy, expertise, and commitment to mentoring scholars are invaluable resources that increase the quality of the McNair experience.  For the McNair Scholar, the benefit of participating in the program depends to a large extent on the supportive relationship between the Faculty Mentor and Scholar.  The relationship is designed to encourage, motivate, and prepare the McNair Scholar for graduate studies to pursue an advanced degree. The McNair Scholars Program is an especially critical time of intense involvement as these scholars learn the research process (some for the first time) from their mentors. Therefore, Faculty Mentors play an integral role in their Scholar’s journey of scholarly research and the graduate school application process. 

Faculty members who are interested in mentoring potential students in the McNair Scholars Program should contact our office. 

If you are interested in mentoring a McNair Scholar, please contact Dr. Brian Kyte: bk597@humboldt.edu  or 707-826-4994