Mentoring Graduate Students: Toto, We’re Not In Kansas Anymore

1. Mentoring Graduate Students: Toto, We’re Not In Kansas Anymore Katherine S. Squibb, PhD University of Maryland, Baltimore Society of Toxicology Meetings March 19, 2008

2. Formal Graduate Student Mentoring: Choice not Chance • Formal relationship • Purpose of mentoring is to help students develop research skills • Ask the right questions • Create successful experimental approaches • Communicate their research • Learn how to develop professional, collaborative relationships • Learn how to manage their time and focus their work

3. Graduate Student Mentoring • Purpose is to help students • Develop into independent scientists • Transition from a mentee to a colleague • How to achieve success? • Provide students with a learning environment • Make time for one on one interactions with your students • Establish a relationship that is professional, cordial, supportive and honest • Encourage your students to work together and take advantage of outside resources

4. Graduate Student Mentoring • Help students identify specific career goals, encouraging them to: • Focus on areas of real interest • Recognize their strengths and weaknesses • Identify opportunities to gain experience in careers outside academic settings • Help students develop a training plan that includes both short and long term goals • Always encourage growth and independence

5. A Changing World ……..Prepare Students for the Future • Successful mentoring is sharing the wisdom you’ve gathered from your life experiences - remembering that we’re in a changing world • Research is becoming more interdisciplinary • Obtaining research funding is extremely competitive • Increasing focus on translation of basic research

6. Prepare Students for the Future • Research is becoming more interdisciplinary • Requires both depth and breathe in their scientific knowledge • Requires skills in working as part of a team • Obtaining research funding is extremely competitive • Requires experience and skills in grant writing • Requires knowledge of changes in funding mechanisms

7. Prepare Students for the Future • Increasing focus on translation of basic research • Requires an understanding of the impact of basic research on medical care, public health and regulatory issues

8. Advice to Mentees: Don’t Be Shy • Choose a good major advisor • Someone who’s successful in the career you’re interested in • Grant funded, strong publication record • Recognized nationally in their area of expertise • Someone who is still actively involved in research • Someone who is available, approachable, creative

9. Advice to Mentees: Don’t Be Shy • Interact with other faculty members and postdocs • Mentor and be mentored by other students • Take advantage of training resources available on campus

10. Mentees: Take Advantage of Campus Resources • University of Maryland, Baltimore Student Resources • Writing Center • Individual, free writing help (manuscripts, dissertations, resumes) • Writing workshops • “Where and how to begin your research proposal” • Grant writing seminars • Preparing to write a grant • Developing a fundable research problem • Tips on revising an NIH grant application • Job hunting seminars • Giving a Research Talk • Communicating to Get the Job

11. Mentees: Take Advantage of Campus Resources • Graduate School seminars • “How to give a great presentation” • “Careers in science” • “How to balance career in science and family life” • Annual events • PhD Career Day • Speakers with careers in government, online publishing, patent and science law • UMB Graduate Student Research Day • Awards for research posters and platform presentations by grad students campus wide • Entire day organized by students

12. Mentees:Take Advantage of On Line Resources • Writing • University of Maryland, Baltimore Writing Center • http://www.umaryland.edu/student/writing/ • Purdue on-line writing lab OWL • http://owl.english.purdue.edu • Grant Writing • University of Maryland School of Medicine • “All you ever wanted to know about grants” • “The question, specific aims and hypotheses” • http://medschool.umaryland.edu/GCRC/documents • NIH • http://grants.nih.gov/grants/grant_tips.htm

13. Opportunities Through SOT • SOT Local Chapters • Many strongly encourage student participation in local activities • Student poster sessions at chapter symposia • Student representatives on local chapter executive boards • NCAC-SOT Annual Career Day Programs • “After Graduation, Stretching Your Degree to the Max” • “Conflict Resolution and Negotiating Skills for Graduate Students and Postdocs” • “Skills You Can Use for Your Future: Interviewing”

14. Successful Mentoring Takes Teamwork Between Mentee and Mentors • “It takes a village to raise a child” • Academic mentors and university resources • On-line training • Opportunities to network at local and national meetings

15. Successful Mentoring Takes Teamwork Between Mentee and Mentors • Graduate students benefit tremendously from opportunities that: • expose them to new ways of thinking • career opportunities they didn’t know existed • Mentoring can be as simple as spending 5 minutes talking with a student about their research at their poster presentations Thank You!