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Revamping the Compass
Mentoring Program
From the Needle
he Compass Project is a program at UC Berkeley
that focuses on community, pedagogy, and diversity in the physical sciences. In 2012, we received
the American Physical Society’s Award for Improving
Undergraduate Physics Education, and we look forward to continuing to do just that with our 2013 Summer Program. This 2-week residential program will
introduce 20 incoming freshmen into a dynamic and
supportive community of graduate and undergraduate
students. Through collaborative, hands-on classes, lab
tours, field trips, and other social activities, these students will form a community that helps them transition into their first year in college.
In this newsletter, we’ve highlighted some of the
amazing work that our grad students, undergrads, and
alumni have recently accomplished. Thanks for reading, and welcome to our community!
By Punit Gandhi and Harjit Singh
Graduate student Punit Gandhi and 4th year undergraduate
Harjit Singh form one of Compass’ mentor-mentee pairs that
have been together for four years. Their experience offers a
perspective on the unique aspects of our program.
O
ne of the most effective ways to form interpersonal bonds between members of a group (especially
when a distinct age gap is present) is to create mentoring relationships between older and younger group
members. This is something Compass has capitalized on
since the group was formed. Compass’s Mentoring Program pairs graduate student mentors with undergraduate
mentees. Through a mix of informal meetings and more
structured group activities, mentor-mentee pairs build
supportive relationships and stay connected to the Compass community.
When asked about what they have gained from their
mentoring relationship that they have not received elsewhere, Harjit and Punit had this to say:
Harjit: “I have a support system through this relationship that I cannot find anywhere else. Punit’s encouragement and advice helped me feel more comfortable pursuing
an astrophysics degree despite the academic challenges it
presented.”
Punit: “Seeing what it’s like to be an undergraduate here
at Berkeley through Harjit’s perspective and experiences has
definitely had a positive impact on my teaching. I can relate
to my students much better because I have a better sense of
what they are going through.”
Compass Mentors, page 2
2012 Summer Program participants take a break from a busy day
of hiking, picnicking, and stargazing at Lick Observatory to take a
group photo.
Exploring New Frontiers in Physics
lunch, however, were exciting and reminded me of why I
had decided to study physics in the first place. This led to
the idea that learning what a future in physics research
might look like could make more students want to stay in
physics, which seemed like a very Compass-y goal.
And so, Frontiers of Physics was born, a class which gives
upper division physics students a window into advanced
physics topics without any math. My co-facilitator, graduate student Hilary Jacks, and I invite graduate students,
postdocs, and professors from every field in physics—from
particle physics, to AMO, to condensed matter and biophys-
By Athena Ierokomos
Athena Ierokomos is a 3rd year undergraduate who
participated in the 2010 Compass Summer Program. Her
interest in the latest physics research led her to create her
own seminar-style class, aptly titled ‘Frontiers in Physics.’
L
ast fall, I started discussing physics with a couple of
friends over lunch. At that time, we were taking physics classes that developed more sophisticated mathematical tools, but I felt that the ideas behind the math
were often underemphasized. The topics we discussed over
July 2013
Frontiers in Physics, page 4
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www.berkeleycompassproject.org
The Evolving Compass Classroom Supporting
outcomes while constantly improv- Students with
ing the quality of the courses and proJohn Haberstroh, a 2nd year graduate grams which Compass produces.
Mentoring
student, co-taught and redesigned the
Here is a description of how the
By John Haberstroh
2012 Physics 98 Courses. These seminars,
which are designed and run by graduate
students, teach incoming freshmen
to think deeply about science and the
process of learning science, all while
continuing to build the community
formed during the summer program.
I
love being a Compass teacher. Compass has a dynamic classroom that
evolves with each new pair of instructors, shedding that which did
not work and integrating new ideas to
keep the course fresh and exciting.
In the Compass classroom, students
are in the spotlight, driving the discussion and discoveries. Being a scientist is
not about reading, it’s about creating! Activities are open ended, and aim to demonstrate the value of a diverse skill set
in solving real problems. Students end
up inventing, writing equations, taking
data, and presenting their results in an
environment which fosters creativity.
While the main idea of the class
stays the same, changes in the past
two years completely transformed the
logistics of the course. My part in revising the course’s curriculum gave me
a sense of responsibility that I could
not have experienced as a grad student without Compass. This dynamic
nature is what I believe makes Compass as a whole so successful: it makes
graduate students very invested in the
courses have recently evolved:
Fall 2011: In Fall 2011, Josiah Schwab
and Joel Corbo introduced final projects.
These eight-week projects are focused
on topics that are accessible to freshmen, but complicated enough to have
unknown answers to our team of volunteer graduate-student PI’s. The level
of engagement and quality of teamwork in these projects was inspiring.
Spring 2012: In Compass’ inaugral
Spring course, Dimitri Dounas-Frazer
and Geoffrey Iwata introduced selfevaluation into the sequence. Self-evaluations give students create tremendous amounts of valuable feedback on
metacognitive skills.
Fall 2012: Joel and I introduced
group homework. These assignments
encouraged communication outside
of class and greatly increased the pace
of the first part of the course, allowing
more time for final projects.
Spring 2013: Punit Gandhi and Jesse
Livezey reframed the course as a research preparation sequence. Education research shows that undergraduate research participation drastically
increases retention in STEM fields, and
the course aims to teach students more
realistic ways to think about research.
I’m excited to teach again next year
and see what great ideas my co-instructor comes up with. What an exciting project to be involved in!
During class, students are encouraged to work together, sharing ideas to create their own models
for understanding physical phenomena.
July 2013
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Compass Mentors, from page 1
While originally providing an adhoc mentorship program, Compass
has since taken strides to restructure
the mentorship pairing process and
renovate the types of activities groups
can participate in. This year the mentoring program organized six Saturday
workshops focused on skills or topics
relevant to both graduate and undergraduate students. These workshops
are full of great activities that are useful whether or not you do them with
your mentee or mentor. Some examples include using feedback from
your life to set goals and make improvements, building and updating resumes, and finding research positions.
In addition to attending workshops,
mentor-mentee pairs are also encouraged to meet informally to get to know
each other better. Some of the most
memorable moments in Punit and
Harjit’s mentoring relationship come
from such informal meetings:
Harjit: “The simplest activities, like
trying a new restaurant for lunch and
mutually deciding to never go there
again, have had a profound impact on
me. Over a series of lunch dates, Punit
and I have come to know each other
pretty well.”
Punit: “One memorable event we
took part in was a showdown on the
basketball court between our mentoring group and Ryan Olf’s. I don’t
remember who won, but we had a
lot of fun and went out for Ethiopian
food afterwards. We are up for a rematch or ready to take on any new
challengers!”
The mentorship program is open
to all students in the physics department, and continues to grow and
change based on the mentoring pairs’
needs. Whether one wishes to foster
a relationship with an undergraduate/
graduate student or attend workshops,
the Compass Mentorship Program is
a great resource for students in the
physical sciences.
www.berkeleycompassproject.org
Congratulations to the Class of 2013!
Undergraduates
Davis Burton, Computer Science
Sara Cheng, Physics & Applied Math
Ankur Dhar, Physics
Felicitas Hernandez, Physics
Gloria Lee, Physics
Jeevan Mahal, Interdisciplinary Studies
Lia Medeiros, Physics & Astrophysics
Biswaroop Mukherjee, Physics & Mathematics
Matt Noakes, Physics
Jun Park, Mechanical Engineering
Harjit Singh, Astrophysics
Graduate Students
Joel Corbo*, Physics
Dimitri Dounas-Frazer*, Physics
Angie Little, Interdisciplinary
STEM Education
Josh Shiode, Astrophysics
*Won the Physics Department’s Student Service Award
Compass East:
Bringing Community to the University of Maryland
projects. Research projects this year ranged from exploring
the feasibility of a Dyson sphere, to building laser cooling
apparatuses.
I am also co- developing a pilot seminar for freshman
physics majors that seeks to give students opportunities for
meaningful collaboration. One component of the seminar
has students develop physics disciplinary problem solving
skills by working on open ended physics questions in smallgroup and whole-class discussions. The second half of the
seminar actively works on building a community by discussing how to form study groups, how to interpret grades
and students’ physics identities.
Trying to do a Compass-style classroom without the
summer program has emphasized to me the importance
of having a summer program. One difficulty in trying
to build community in this setting is that students only
meet for two hours every week. I hope to be able to put
together a summer program similar to Compass’s to foreground community building through shared meals and
living together. Through a summer program, I hope to
see these two classes grow into an even stronger community.
By Gina Quan
Gina Quan is a 1st year graduate student studying Physics
Education Research at the University of Maryland Physics
Department. She participated in the 2008 Compass Summer
Program.
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his year, my research project was to co-design and
co-teach seminars for incoming freshmen interested
in physics at the University of Maryland. My participation in Compass was invaluable to me putting together
these classes. They are founded upon the same values: that
having the opportunity for meaningful problem solving in
groups can help students build strong communities, and
strong communities support success in physics.
Like Berkeley, the University of Maryland is a large research institution with a huge physics department, so students face many of the same challenges as a student at
Berkeley. This semester I worked on a research seminar for
freshmen, which helped students gain research skills by
exploring several “toy models” of research. Students were
then paired with faculty mentors to work on small research
July 2013
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www.berkeleycompassproject.org
Internal and Interpersonal Growth as a Compass
Graduate Student
By Alexander Anderson
Alex Anderson is a 1st-year graduate
student. His involvement with Compass
has deeply impacted how he perceives
his role as a scientist.
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he Berkeley Compass Project has
been an essential factor in my
growth as an emotionally balanced and collaborative scientific researcher in my first year in the Berkeley
Physics department.
I’ve improved my ability to handle a
wide array of issues that students typically face by learning about them in
Compass. For example, there have been
times where I felt like I didn’t deserve to
be where I am now, I just couldn’t learn
something no matter how hard I tried,
and I couldn’t see myself as a scientist.
In the Compass mentoring program, we
talk about all of these issues: the impostor syndrome1, fixed mindsets2, and
role models3. Discussing these issues in
Compass helped me quickly and effectively recognize and then work through
counter-productive thoughts that come
to mind when I do research.
Moving from internal issues to external interactions, I’ve continued to
develop my ability to collaborate with
people at all levels as a member of Compass. First, I worked on my mentoring
abilities by offering general support to
one student. Further, I supervised two
groups of three students on small science projects. The experience of working
with younger students will certainly be
useful for me as I may enlist the help
of undergraduates in my research. Next,
Compass has given me useful experience
in collaborating with my peers. I have
learned how to contribute to designing
an event and to offer helpful suggestions in meetings. Further, Compass has
facilitated relationships with advanced
graduate students who have given me
sound advice on multiple occasions.
While it is typically hard for students
to create strong connections with older
students, I have naturally made friends
with older graduate students while organizing programs for Compass. Finally,
being a mentor in the Compass program
has made me more aware of how to be
a good mentee or one who is mentored.
I’ve felt more comfortable asking my research mentor for help and discussing
things that I’m interested in. In total,
Compass is a dynamic group that has
helped me develop communication and
collaborative skills.
Indeed, being engaged in a variety of
Frontiers in Physics
Frontiers in Physics, from page 1
T
ics, both theorists and experimentalists—to speak about
what makes them love physics. They speak about the science of their field at a conceptual level, which is very useful for students who have no experience in physics beyond
introductory courses. Students are provided with readings
in advance, and most of the class is spent answering questions they come up with. What does working in physics feel
like? What are the important questions that researchers in
each field are trying to answer? These questions and more
are discussed.
The first months during which the course was being developed and planned were pretty stressful. I had a lot of help
from many Compass students who gave me ideas on how
to run the class. But, the class went well, and we’ve gotten
very positive feedback from the students and speakers. I am
so proud to have been able to improve my education here at
Cal as well as that of other students’.
July 2013
Compass events has helped me develop
in ways that I would not have otherwise.
On the emotional side, I have a strong
support network to help me deal with
the inevitable challenges associated
with creating original research. On the
social side, I have experience with developing effective collaborations that will
be essential in my upcoming research.
One final benefit is that my Compass involvement helped me win a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship-two of the three
application reviewers cited my work in
Compass in their evaluations. In conclusion, while a surface-level assessment
of my involvement in Compass would
conclude that I am wasting time not doing research, a deeper look shows that
my participation in Compass has been a
beneficial time investment in my development as a scientist.
References
1. “Unmasking the Impostor” Karen Kaplan Nature, 459: 468-469 (May 2009)
2. “Mindset: the new psychology of success” Carol Dweck Ballantine Books (Dec
2007)
3. “When do Female Role Models Benefit Women?” Benjamin J. Drury et al.
Cheryan Psychological Inquiry, 22: 265–
269, (2011)
Who We Are
he Compass Project is a self-formed group of
graduate and undergraduate students in the
physical sciences at UC Berkeley. Our goals are to
improve undergraduate physics education, provide our
members with opportunities for professional development, and increase retention of students, especially
those from populations typically underrepresented in
the physical sciences. Compass fosters a diverse, collaborative student community by providing a wide
range of services including: a summer program, fall
and spring courses, a course for transfer students,
mentoring, a research lecture series, office hours, and
other academic and social support.
To find out more about us or to donate to Compass,
please visit www.berkeleycompassproject.org or
email us at compass@berkeley.edu.
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www.berkeleycompassproject.org