Course Overview

You need mentors to succeed in your graduate training and beyond. Mentors can support you, give advice, introduce you to others, share essential information, and ask good questions to help you to clarify your thinking and progress along your scientific research journey in school and future career path.

Build Your Research Community is a FREE, 5-module course (with a bonus 6th module!) that will guide you through the steps of identifying mentors and building and maintaining mentoring relationships. Scientists from a variety of backgrounds give concrete steps and strategies to help you build a mentoring network to be successful.

At the end of this course you will be able to…

• Use your understanding of the academic research environment to develop your individual pathway to success in graduate school.
• Find a research advisor & research group that matches your mentorship needs.
• Build a healthy relationship with your research advisor based upon communication and aligning expectations.
• Develop a community of mentorship from your thesis committee, peers, research colleagues, academic staff, and supporters outside of academe.

A course for anyone starting or already in graduate school

This course is designed for anyone who is thinking about, planning to go to, or already in graduate school in biological research. This list also includes (but is not limited) to advanced undergraduate and early graduate students in the life sciences. While most of the instructors have a background in the life sciences, the lessons are broadly applicable to other disciplines.

Includes 5 comprehensive modules and an optional IDP plan

• Module 1, UNDERSTANDING GRADUATE RESEARCH TRAINING: This module introduces you to the academic research training environment, and the roles and responsibilities of your primary research advisor(s). This module will also help you understand imposter phenomenon and become a more confident researcher.
• Module 2, FINDING YOUR GRADUATE RESEARCH LAB: This module presents strategies to help you create a plan of action for choosing a research advisor and lab. This module will also help you identify your preferred mentoring styles.
• Module 3, ESTABLISHING A POSITIVE MENTORING RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR RESEARCH ADVISOR: In this module, you will learn strategies for cultivating healthy and productive professional relationships with your research advisor(s). This module will also help you assess your preferred communication styles, practice strategies of effective communication, and align expectations for your research training experience.
• Module 4, YOUR MENTORING NETWORK: This module will help you understand the importance of mentors. You will create a plan to build your mentoring community to support your research, professional development, career goals, and health and wellness.
• Module 5, EXPANDING YOUR MENTORING NETWORK: Some tips and best practices on communicating and building professional relationships with prospective mentors, including your thesis committee.
• Module 6, OPTIONAL IDP ACTIVITY: This optional module is to identify your career and long-term goals and create an Individual Development Plan (IDP).

Built with your schedule in mind

You have lots of things to do, so we built this course to focus on concepts and activities that directly apply to your life as a scientist. Each of the 6 modules in the course averages 3 brief videos per module and takes about 2 to 4 hours of work.

Requirements

There are no requirements needed to take this class.

Course Format & Certification

Build Your Research Community is an on-demand, self-paced course. This means that, as soon as you enroll (and the course has started), all course content is available to you and may be consumed at your own pace. At the end of the course, you can apply to receive a a digital badge and Certificate of Completion to share and keep for your records. Passing requires that you complete all of the required activities for the course, which equals 64% of the total activities.

Take the Course on Canvas

List to the Companion Podcast

The Trainee Podcast: Build Your Research Community is a companion follow-up podcast to this course. This seven-episode podcast dives deeper into advanced mentor-mentee dynamics, offering insights from 12 diverse experts to help you collaborate more effectively with your Principal Investigator (PI). Through thoughtful conversations, it provides concrete strategies for navigating career transitions, exploring career paths with your advisor, receiving and responding to feedback, resolving conflicts, and aligning expectations—empowering you to build a strong, productive research partnership.