My mentoring philosophy is focused on providing opportunities for students to learn and gain new skills in a safe setting. Research is a skill, that means with practice we can get better at it. Regardless of your prior research experience, we can all learn new ways to work and to gain understanding in research. I take a hands on approach to mentoring, providing guidance and doing the work along with the student until they feel comfortable with the tasks. I have successfully mentored many undergraduate and graduate students. Additionally, I have had 18 peer-reviewed publications where I have worked with students. The specific mentoring activities that I engage in are meetings to discuss the project, answer questions, and work together on the data collection and coding. Additionally, I view SPUR as part of a broader introduction to research and the topic of political science, public policy, and public health. As such, we can meet discuss those topics as part of our mentoring activities.