My approach to mentoring is inspired by one of the fundamental problems in my research on storygames: the "narrative paradox"-a tradeoff between the demands of narrative coherence (resulting from well-structured stories) and the demands of the player whose playful actions may run contrary to the intended narrative, resulting in an incoherent experience. So too there is a need to balance the demands of a Research Experience for Undergraduates, which ought to cover a coherent research experience, with the demands of a student who is interested to explore beyond it.

My mentoring philosophy is thus anchored on two beliefs:

1. Students are essential co-creators of their educational experience. Thus, every student requires some adaptation in terms of teaching, learning, and advising methods; and

2.Instructors are responsible for scaffolding the evolution of their students' mental models. My role is to carefully guide the evolution of my students' mental model of whatever we are discussing from novice to expert, much like storygame design requires guiding the evolution of a player's mental model of the narrative from the introduction to the conclusion.

Grounded in these beliefs, I take a constructivist approach to mentoring; I invite students to create artifacts that concretize ideas and expose new ambiguities that arise from the need to be precise.

Students can expect:

1. Weekly one-on-one meetings with me and my graduate students to discuss progress, challenges, and insights.

2. Guided training in narrative grammar theory and diagnostic methods.

3. Support in analyzing gameplay, segmenting scenes, and coding narrative elements.

4. Feedback on written analysis, presentation skills, & research reporting.