First-gen student turns passion for mentoring into lifelong career

Like many high school students, Richard Pineau, B.A. '09, M.A. '11, M.P.A. '16, felt compelled to go to college.

"I had my heart set on architecture and was committed to Lawrence Technological Institute," Pineau said. "I had applied to Wayne State University as a back-up plan, and if I went there, I'd study math and go into teaching."

Then, he received a phone call from WSU with an offer for a Presidential Scholarship that would cover the entirety of his tuition.

"For me, it was an easy decision!"

A first-generation college student, Pineau felt overwhelmed at the start of his freshman year. He received a D on his first math quiz he was confident he had aced and quickly realized that studying at university would need to become a routine habit. He registered for the Emerging Scholars Program (ESP), an honors-level calculus and pre-calculus program with a strong student support component. It was through ESP he learned about the WSU mentoring program Math Corps.

"I'd say I was driven to become a mentor because as a first-generation college student myself, I remembered how difficult it was to navigate a complex institution like a university."

He signed up to become a Math Corps college assistant and mentor Detroit High School students in 2004. Four years later, the program did something unprecedented and hired Pineau, an undergraduate, as a member of senior staff who oversaw the logistics of an entire summer camp of more than twenty trainees. He went on to work full-time for Math Corps between 2009-2013 wherein he served as the assistant program coordinator and later the interim program coordinator.

Pineau completed multiple WSU degrees; transitioned from the Math Corps to a lecturer position in the mathematics department where he worked his way up to associate professor of teaching and was recently promoted to full professor of teaching, effective this August; was elected the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences' representative to the Curriculum & Instruction Committee (CIC) of the Academic Senate where he's currently serving his third term; and now he's a Ph.D. candidate in the educational studies program at the College of Education.

Through it all, he never quit mentoring. It's a passion that saw him become the informal mentor in the mathematics department new graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) turn to for answers to their questions and a formal graduate student mentor in the Graduate School's Success for Undergraduate Students in Graduate Education (SURGE) program.

"As a Wayne State alum, what better way to give back and help support others than to become a mentor. My calling and profession is a teacher and that is what teaching is all about!"

When it came to deciding on a dissertation topic, mentoring inspired his research. Under the mentorship of Professor Asli Ozgun-Koca, Ph.D., Pineau conducted a mixed methods study through interviews and online surveys with STEM GTAs to analyze the support and training they receive throughout their assistantships.

"This work is very relevant since WSU is looking at pass rates for developmental courses, and historically, STEM courses are known to be challenging for students. Therefore, who teaches these courses absolutely matters. And aside from the teaching faculty and tenured faculty, GTAs are often assigned to teach these courses, so why not understand how they are supported, trained, and seek out guidance on teaching?"

He will start writing up his results later this summer.