Grad Grow Learning Opportunities

Trying to figure out your path through grad school? Peruse the Individual Development Plan resource from BioSci Careers for tools to help you create a personal training and career plan, as well as guidance in how to speak to your advisor about your plans. While this page is primarily geared toward students in the biosciences, Individual Development Plans can prove useful to all students looking for guidance in planning their training and goals for graduate school.

The Mentors in Teaching (MinT) program supports the work of TA Mentors, who provide peer support to other TAs and act as general resources in their departments. Those interested in becoming a Teaching Mentor or a MinT Fellow should contact their departments and check the Center in Teaching and Learning website for application instructions and training dates. 

This book is a resource for postdoctoral and early-career faculty on crucial aspects of directing and managing a research lab. An initiative of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and HHMI, Making the Right Moves covers diverse topics such as applying for faculty jobs, laboratory leadership, staffing, getting funded, time management, and setting up collaborations. This book is also an excellent reference for advanced doctoral students interested in improving their research management skills, for both academic and non-academic settings.

Often mentees are passive in their relationships with mentors, leaving it up to the mentor to direct the relationship. "Mentoring up” is a concept that empowers mentees to be active participants in their mentoring relationships by shifting the emphasis from the mentors’ responsibilities in the mentor-mentee relationship to equal emphasis on the mentees’ contributions. This chapter on "Mentoring Up" from The Mentoring Continuum offers specific strategies that mentees can use to consciously contribute to and guide the mentoring relationship. 

While mentoring is often viewed as one person giving and the other person receiving, it can be better defined as a mutually empowering relationship where both parties learn and benefit. This video offers insight into the importance of developing mentoring relationships that are based on both similarity and difference. If you are trying to figure out how a mentoring relationship should work (as either the mentor or mentee), check this video out for a unique point of view and some excellent advice on how to have an effective relationship.

The National Research Mentoring Network provides opportunities for virtual mentorship (as a mentor or mentee) with trainings and guidance to broaden participation in every career stage in the biomedical workforce. Many of their resources about how to be a good mentor and mentee, as well as finding a mentor, are broadly applicable to all fields. Create a free account to join!