Alicia Modestino is a research grantee who has mentored ten undergraduate and eight graduate research assistants since joining the faculty at Northeastern. Despite mentoring experience that spans the past 15 years, she seeks to continue stretching her mentoring skills to be more structured, strategic, and deliberate. As a White woman, she also seeks to enhance her own cultural competency in terms of addressing issues of race by attending workshops and training at the MassMentoring Institute, which will enable her to develop a structured mentoring program that can be implemented at her own institution. Modestino will work on stepping back and allowing mentees to be more independent by giving them more leadership responsibilities on various strands of her research projects. Modestino’s mentee, Urbashee Paul, a second year South Asian doctoral student in the Department of Economics at Northeastern University, has focused her research on economics, poverty, and income inequality issues in the U.S. and internationally, and through this award will work with Modestino on her major research grant investigating how summer job programs can help reduce inequality among youth.
Modestino will use this award to enhance her cultural competency in terms of addressing issues of race by attending workshops and training at the MassMentoring Institute, which will enable her to develop a structured mentoring program that can be implemented at her own institution.
