Paying it Forward: URI Mentor Award Recipients Share the Secret to Their Success
By: Shenin Mehnaj and Shruti Shah
Mentors are crucial to a successful undergrad research experience. They motivate their students and provide them with the tools and support to achieve both their personal and academic goals. And mentoring isn’t just reserved for professors; graduate students also play important roles in mentoring undergraduate research.
To recognize the effect of mentors on undergraduate research, students created the URI Mentor Award. The student-nominated award recognizes the unsung heroes that make undergraduate research possible — the professors, staff, graduate students, and others who invest in training and mentoring undergraduates in their research.
This past March, the URI recognized two graduate students for their outstanding contributions to undergraduate research mentorship: Sabin Bozso and Kim Ho. Sabin is a PhD candidate in the Department of Surgery and a resident in cardiac surgery. Kim Ho is also a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry.
Sabin’s interest in mentorship stems from having an excellent mentor himself when he was conducting his undergraduate research. “My mentor was always available, approachable, and provided enough free-reign for me to make mistakes and troubleshoot them on my own to learn from it,” he recalls. Sabin now has the opportunity to work with students interested in medicine and surgery at an early stage, and enjoys being able to “pay forward” his personal experiences and lessons with them.
“One of the most rewarding aspects of mentoring for me is seeing the students take an idea that we discuss and watching it grow into a full experiment, or a complete question which they are able to test and answer, while being able to share in that journey of discovery with them,” Sabin says. “My own philosophy towards mentorship is to be a guide to the students. I provide enough guidance and instruction to get them started and then really allow the students to create their own research questions and experiment designs. I allow them to make mistakes and have us work through them together as a team.”
While Sabin’s busy schedule as a cardiac surgery resident is sometimes challenging, he uses this as motivation to cultivate more effective time management skills. “Being a URI Mentor award recipient is validation that it is possible to be very busy yourself, but still find time and make an effort to inspire the generations of students that will follow in your footsteps.” Sabin hopes that this recognition inspires other grad students and residents to develop a passion for providing quality mentorship. “We’ve all had mentors in some capacity and my advice would be to let that be the inspiration to pursue being a mentor yourself.”
Kim agrees. “I am inspired to pass on my mentorship skills to other graduate students who are in my position and have the opportunity to mentor undergraduate students. Kim adds that the qualities she most admires in a mentor is “the ability to create a psychologically safe environment where one is not afraid of asking questions or speaking up about their thoughts.” She also admires her mentors’ critical thinking skills, resilience, morals and ability to admit fault. Kim’s own mentorship style has developed from years of having received exceptional mentorship from her graduate supervisors. “How they mentor me is how I mentor my own students.”
According to Kim, being patient with mentees, encouraging them, and setting healthy boundaries with mentees such that they respect the mentor’s time are key to being a successful mentor. “Don’t forget to cheer them on regularly and tell them they’re doing a great job!” she advises.
Kim believes her mentoring experience will help her with her future professional goal of working in academia. “It is absolutely critical to have excellent mentorship skills in order to successfully mentor one’s students and improve productivity in the lab.”
So what’s next in store for the recipients? Sabin will be defending his PhD thesis in April 2021 and then returning to cardiac surgery clinical training. He hopes to work as an academic clinician-scientist with a clinical cardiac surgery practice while running a basic science lab. Kim plans on completing her thesis project, investigating whether the keto diet can help heart failure, and graduating in 2021/2022.
If you are a grad student interested in mentorship, or an undergrad student looking to nominate your mentor for recognition, please contact URI or visit www.uab.ca/uri for more information.
About the Authors
Shenin Mehnaj is an international student from Bangladesh. She is in her final year of a bachelor’s degree in Nutrition and Food Science with a minor in Food Policy. She is also a Peer Undergraduate Research Liaison (PURL) with the Undergraduate Research Initiative and a volunteer with the Campus Food Bank.
Shruti Shah was one of the graduates from University of Alberta’s Class of 2020. She is currently in her first year of the Doctor of Pharmacy program and has served as a Peer Undergraduate Research Liaison (PURL) with the Undergraduate Research Initiative for three years. She is passionate about mentorship and is excited to support the URI Mentor Award.
