Mentoring @ Yale IBIO

Yale hosts several programs that connect high school, undergraduate, and community members with mentored experiences in laboratories. Many of these initiatives provide financial support for the scholars to conduct full-time research projects and provide additional programming about scientific writing and communication, career paths in STEM, bioethics, and much more.

Summer programs often recruit mentors during the winter and early spring for start dates in May, June, or July. Typically, both the in-lab mentor (often a PhD student or postdoc) and the lab’s PI must confirm their interest in hosting a scholar. For some programs the scholars will write their own project proposal with the support of the lab prior to starting, while for others the mentor will provide a short description of the project and students will match with the lab based on their mutual interests.

As soon as you know you will be hosting a summer student, please fill out this form.

This will add your student to a listserv to receive information about our department's weekly foundational immunology lectures, an IBIO summer research symposium, and other programming to support the development of your student's research and science communication skills.

Mentoring support is critical for a researcher’s personal and professional development at all stages of their scientific career. However, mentoring can be challenging and most scientists are never formally taught how to mentor in lab settings.

Once each academic year the Poorvu Center for Teaching & Learning offers a workshop aimed at discussing the qualities of an exceptional mentor, learning teaching strategies for different scenarios in the lab, and learning ways to communicate more effectively with mentees.

The IWGCE Outreach Subcommittee hosts a similar workshop open to IBIO trainees led by Dr. Paula Kavathas and Sarah Ohashi (Poorvu Teaching Fellow) at the start of each summer. This workshop covers how to set clear mentor-mentee expectations, support our mentees in their career and research goals, and facilitate independence in the lab. Both new and seasoned mentors are welcome to share their perspectives and questions!