When I started the second year of my PhD, I was desperate because I felt I wouldn’t be able to finish all the tasks I needed to. I asked my advisor to let me take some university students to train them and have their help in sample processing in the wet lab, as well as in the clinic recruiting participants.
My wish was granted, but it wasn’t until later that I understood the magnitude of what I was asking for. I learned gradually, and I must say that I was surely a better mentor to the last student than to the first one (sorry).
After more than 20 students, I have learned a lot and I still have a lot to learn. But here are the basic steps I follow and If it is of any use to you, I’ll be glad to share.
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LET THEM GET FAMILIAR WITH THE PLACE AND PEOPLE
Sure, you’ve been in the place for months or even years, but they haven’t. Introduce them to the people who can help them, explain who they should ask for help if they spill a solvent, or who they need to ask for permission to use the supercomputing unit. Don’t forget the bathrooms and the cafeteria. -
PROVIDE FOUNDATIONAL TRAINING
If you try to explain basic statistics and the fundamentals of PCR to your students one by one, you’ll probably never finish. There are excellent resources available. I use these two from GP2: Research Methods I and Research Methods II as mandatory training. They are available at Training - GP2 -
LET THEM CHOOSE THEIR OWN MINI-PROJECT (OPTIONAL)
I confess, I wanted someone to help me extract DNA. But this mentor-mentee relationship is reciprocal, so if the student is motivated, they deserve to have their own mini-project. I listen to their interests, and based on that, I give them two or three topic options. However, I let them set their own research question. I like this piece for that: How To Choose a Good Scientific Problem - ScienceDirect -
PROVIDE SPECIFIC TRAINING
Whether the student is going to develop their own project or specialize in a specific task within the group, they will likely need specific training. For my students working in the clinical field, I use a lot of resources available from MDS: Course Listing, and for those in the Drylab, GP2’s Bioinformatics for Beginners and the excellent repository of my postdoc colleague (in Spanish) GitHub - EveliaCoss/ViernesBioinfo2024: Viernes de Bioinformatica en el LIIGH, 2 febrero - 2 de agosto 2024 which includes tutorials. -
SET SPECIFIC ACHIEVABLE GOALS
It can be very frustrating for both mentor and mentee if there are no “tangible” results. Set specific goals for the student (monthly, semesterly, etc.) i. e. recruit 10 control participants, compare the performance of these two DNA extraction kits, run an association analysis for this variant. But follow up, ask about the student’s progress and challenges. If necessary, offer to have personal meetings from time to time. -
HAVE CLOSURE (AND FEEDBACK)
Have a product at the end of the student’s stay in the lab. It doesn’t matter if it’s a one-page report, a poster at a conference, or a paper. Having that (in my experience) generates peace of mind and a sense of accomplishment in the student. Something I will implement in my new cohort is asking for feedback from students about their experience as trainees.
Off record advice: make sure they are having a little fun. I always let them print and paste memes in packages we ship to other labs/clinics. It is harmless yet they really look forward to it.
I know there are many people in this community who train students. What other strategies and resources do you use?
I also would love to hear from Mentorship and Training Task Force!
