The Magic of Mentorship
I’m now at the point in my career where I have had a couple of different opportunities to be a mentor. Most recently, I was one of the supervisors for my university’s iGEM team.
It’s been a bit of a stressful summer for the team. Some things have worked. Some things have not. That’s just how the world of research operates. And that can be a difficult task to grasp, especially when you really, really, really want the science to work the way you’d planned.
I’ll admit there were moments this summer when it was difficult to be a mentor. I didn’t want to be the one in charge. I wanted the students to be more independent and solve their own problems. There were times when I lacked motivation and it became even harder to inspire motivation in my mentees.
I had to force myself to remember the times when I was in the same position and I just needed someone to bounce ideas off of in order to get back into the swing of things. I had to remember my mentors. I'm not sure I did them justice.
I can confidently say that mentorship is the reason I am where I am today. I wouldn’t have made it without the support of people who, for whatever reason, saw something that resembled potential in me. From my fourth grade science teacher to my high school Speech and Debate coach to the graduate students who supervised my undergraduate research, there has always been someone looking out for me and encouraging me to keep going even when the future seemed daunting.
I want to provide that same support for future scientists and engineers. I think I was really close this summer with the iGEM team. Their experience at the Giant Jamboree in Boston showed me just how much they loved what they did this summer. As I watched them get excited about another team’s project or saw their smiles as they walked around a lab at MIT, I felt so proud of them and so glad I got to share this with them.
This past week in Boston and my reflections on mentorship inspired a new poem. Go to That Smile to check it out!
It’s been a bit of a stressful summer for the team. Some things have worked. Some things have not. That’s just how the world of research operates. And that can be a difficult task to grasp, especially when you really, really, really want the science to work the way you’d planned.
I’ll admit there were moments this summer when it was difficult to be a mentor. I didn’t want to be the one in charge. I wanted the students to be more independent and solve their own problems. There were times when I lacked motivation and it became even harder to inspire motivation in my mentees.
I had to force myself to remember the times when I was in the same position and I just needed someone to bounce ideas off of in order to get back into the swing of things. I had to remember my mentors. I'm not sure I did them justice.
I can confidently say that mentorship is the reason I am where I am today. I wouldn’t have made it without the support of people who, for whatever reason, saw something that resembled potential in me. From my fourth grade science teacher to my high school Speech and Debate coach to the graduate students who supervised my undergraduate research, there has always been someone looking out for me and encouraging me to keep going even when the future seemed daunting.
I want to provide that same support for future scientists and engineers. I think I was really close this summer with the iGEM team. Their experience at the Giant Jamboree in Boston showed me just how much they loved what they did this summer. As I watched them get excited about another team’s project or saw their smiles as they walked around a lab at MIT, I felt so proud of them and so glad I got to share this with them.
This past week in Boston and my reflections on mentorship inspired a new poem. Go to That Smile to check it out!
