OceanAccess Mentoring Philosophy |
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The role of a mentor is to help their mentee achieve their goals.
We, at OceanAccess, always establish a dialogue with the personnel or students joining the lab to better understand where they want to go with their professional or academic career, and how we can better assist them in reaching their goals.
OceanAccess mentoring philosophy is also based on collaboration. For example, experienced graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in the lab are expected to participate in mentoring junior members, and potentially collaborate on publications, where appropriate. Because our work heavily relies on modern computational tools, we also expect that members will interact and share codes using the OceanAccess Research Lab GitHub page. In terms of mentorship, we think that balancing autonomy and empowerment with frequent follow ups and milestones is key for success. As a lab member, you can expect regular weekly or bi-weekly one-on-one meetings with your mentor. During those meetings, the mentee will be expected to prepare the agenda, lead the discussion and follow up on previous action items. Challenges related to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion are common in Academia, where ideas and metrics of excellence are often dominated by the western culture. At OceanAccess we are committed in creating an equitable, inclusive and diverse working environment. Productivity metrics, or expression of excellence, are also not the same for everyone. Diverse points of view and learning approaches exist. Cultural diversity and references are assets in a team. Because each research member may have different goals, managing expectations is also important for successful relationships between mentors and mentees. Mutual expectations may differ based on past experiences, personality or cultural background. Awareness regarding those differences is essential and will be discussed with anyone interested in joining the lab. Communication is key. Please get in touch if you have any questions or comments! |