The YSC is pleased to announce our first ever “Partnering for Success” peer mentoring program for the 2017 ASPET Annual Meeting. This program will provide an opportunity for postdoctoral scholars to mentor graduate students at the meeting. The goals of this mentoring program are to:
- Support, encourage, and motivate younger ASPET members and first-time attendees.
- Provide a mentoring experience for ASPET postdocs and increase networking opportunities.
- Increase trainee interactions across ASPET divisions
So, what are some of the individual benefits of this program? First, you will have the opportunity to get to know someone new by meeting each other in person at the meeting, and you will then have at least one familiar face around during the meeting! Since we will be pairing graduate student mentees and postdoc mentors based on their general scientific interests, you would have made a new contact (maybe even friend?) with whom you can talk at leisure about your favorite field of science. Those who become postdoc mentors will be ideally placed to answer questions for graduate students about finding postdoctoral fellowships, the application and interview processes, as well as advice on the PI-trainee relationship. To top it all off, all participants will have the amazing opportunity to have a new fan rooting for them when they visit each other’s poster session or oral presentation during the meeting. All participants will be provided a formal ASPET Certificate of Participation after completing a survey following the meeting.
Our program is open to all trainees registered for the ASPET Annual Meeting, and all interested parties will be accepted into the mentoring program. So even if you are a graduate student who has been to an annual meeting before (if so, welcome back!) go ahead and apply. Participants will be notified of their mentors/mentees no later than April 14th. If you are interested, please fill out the following form to register by Friday, March 24th and we hope to see you there!