Training future builders of cells
The Build-a-Cell community mentorship program connects people at different stages of career to share advice and experience.
Anybody can be a mentor! Most people have experience to share with those junior to them. If you are grad student, you could mentor an undergrad, etc.
Join
If you are willing to be a mentor, or if you are looking for connection to mentors, please sign up here.
The practicalities of mentorship
The mechanics of the relationship between mentor and mentee are up to you. We are asking everyone to be respectful, and please be clear with your expectations and your availability.
If something is not working out, please let us know immediately.
The minimum of mentoring through this program is one real-time meeting (virtual, teleconference meeting). We ask for face to face interactions in the spirit of Build-a-Cell emphasizing personal connections. You can continue meeting for as long as you want, exchange emails or work out other forms of interactions after the first original meeting. Or the one meeting could be all you need, and the relationship ends there.
The end
Both mentor and mentee can end the relationship at any point. You don’t owe your mentor or mentee anything except respect. If a partner asks you to stop the Build-a-Cell mentorship relationship, please respect that wish and do not contact him or her about this project anymore.
You express willingness to spend time on the mentoring relationship, making a promise based on your needs and availability at the time you sign up. We ask everyone to understand that availability and needs can change, and person who was once available to mentor or in need of mentoring might not be in that situation few weeks or months later.
Some mentor - mentee pairs might also turns out to be a bad fit, with different career goals or mismatched expectations about the involvement in the mentoring relationship. Please work with the understanding that your partner can move on from the mentoring program at any time.
This is not a job fair
This project is not designed to connect you with a future PI or recruit people into your lab. If you are looking for a lab in synthetic cell engineering, you are better off contacting professors directly.
If a mentor ends up hiring mentee, we will celebrate this as matchmaking success of our mentorship program (please let us know if this happens!). But this is not the major goal.
Mentors:
At minimum, we are asking for 1 meeting with your mentee. During this meeting, you establish what the mentee needs, what can you provide, and you discuss a path forward. You can continue meeting or corresponding regularly, if that’s what you both wish. It’s possible you can answer all questions and give advice on specific issues during that one meeting, or you can continue your relationship through more meetings and/or follow up communication.
In this project, like in most Build-a-Cell activities, we emphasize personal connections. That’s why we ask you to schedule a real time meeting, not conclude the whole relationship over emails. Obviously most meetings will be via teleconference, because of our geographic diversity and the pandemic.
Signing up as a mentor, you declare you are open to be paired with mentee until you cancel your involvement with the program. We will always check in with you before pairing you with a new person, so you can put a stop on taking new mentorship obligations at any time.
People receiving mentoring:
Signing up for the program, it is assumed you will be paired with one mentor. If you need more help, please contact us.
Please be very clear about your expectations with your mentor: do you need help on a specific issue, or a general career advice?
If you want advice on specific issue, describe it clearly. For example, ask how to get into grad school, or how to find a job in industry?
If you want a general career advice, please say so - the mentor will guide the conversation. It’s ok to not know exactly what questions you need to ask. The mentor will help you figure it out. Good general career advice conversation starter would be to ask your mentor about his or her career path.
We will pair you with a mentor based on mentors availability, taking into account your research interests and geography. We cannot guarantee matching you with a particular mentor. If you care about talking to a specific person in synthetic cell community, you should email him or her directly.