A reflection by one of our "Near Peer Mentors"

     I remember it like it was yesterday… On May 4, 2017, I received an email from Dr. Swanson congratulating others and myself on being selected as a Near Peer Mentor for the Summer Undergraduate Research in Pharmacology and Environmental Health Sciences (SURES) program. “Waaaaaaaaaahoooooooooooo,” I screamed. I could not believe it. I was in such disbelief that I had to re-read the email just to ensure what I previously read was accurate, AND IT WAS CORRECT!

Weeks before the selection notification, I was carefully preparing my application for the Near Peer Mentor position. I can still recall the anxiety I experienced preparing my answers for the questions asked on the application. I was hoping that my hobbies, career goals, and attributes aligned with the desired requirements for the position. For a while now, I have been exploring career paths that would allow me to mentor students. Since undergraduate, I knew I wanted to pursue a career that allows me to engage with students and aid in the development of their academic and career endeavors. The mentoring I received during my time in undergrad tremendously influenced my life, and ensured the successful completion of my Bachelor’s degree. This was it! The acceptance as a SURES Program Near Peer Mentor finally gave me the opportunity to pay it forward!

     Initially I thought that as a mentor my role was just “to be there,” and to give my mentee the “recipe” I used for success. After all, my previous mentors were always there for me, and I closely followed their “recipe”. It was not until the Near Peer Mentor introductory meeting/training session that I learned that coaching is a large part of mentoring. Dr. Swanson explained how one can be mentored and how one can be coached. Although coaching and mentoring are distinct, they have many commonalities. All of my mentors to date were scientists who went to graduate school and chose to submerge themselves into a career in Academia. It never dawned on me that the positive experiences they provided, along with at the time my budding interest in biomedical sciences led me my current position as a graduate student.  

     During the introductory meeting/training session, I began to wonder if I could even coach. I have been mentored all this time, not coached. I knew I could advise someone to follow my path, but what if being a professor, doing science outreach, or going to graduate school was not my SURES student goal. I began to worry. After the meeting, I went home and read literature on mentoring and coaching. I continued to read about the topics until a day or so before Dr. Swanson assigned us students.

My moment of truth came via email. Dr. Swanson sent an email out with Near Peer Mentors and student assignments. Before reading the email, I closed my eyes and hoped I would have a student who aspired to have a career path closely to my path. Oh boy! I took a deep breath and began to read. I was not assigned a student who wanted to attend graduate school, instead I was assigned a student who aspires to be a physician. After reading my assignment I prayed that I would be the best mentor possible. I immediately started brainstorming things that I could do to ensure my mentee’s success in becoming a physician.

     The next day, I acted on my brainstormed scattered notes. I contacted my mentee and asked if her and I could have an initial meeting. A few days later we met and discussed on status in applying to medical school. She informed me that she was working on the completion of her application and had clinical shadowing hours. I asked if I could help her with the application. A week or so later I read and revised her personal statement. While reading her personal statement, I began to develop a deeper understanding of why she wanted to be a physician. Upon returning her personal statement, I asked her if she was willing to complete other shadowing opportunities. She replied yes. I then began networking with physicians at UK. I started with a simple email followed by an office visit. During the office visit I explained my student’s aspirations and progress to date. I secured her multiple shadowing opportunities in areas of medicine she had no familiarity with.  

     After telling her the news and establishing correspondence between her and the physicians I contacted, I began to mention that she should prepare for the interview process. My student and I both knew students in medical school at UK, so I suggested she conduct an informal interview with these students. The goal of her informal interviews was to find out as much as the medical school interview for admission process. To my delight her informal interviews went well. Feeling much better about her application and the admission interview process, my student submitted her application.

     Since the submission, our frequent lunch meetings now focus on her summer laboratory experience. Not only am I my student’s Near Peer Mentor, I am also a graduate student in the laboratory that she is working in. I will admit that after receiving the SURES student assignments, I was nervous about being both my student’s mentor and laboratory supervisor. I was hoping I could balance both mentoring and supervising the same student. Coaching was new to me, but training someone in the lab was even “newer.” Prior to the submission of her application, I made a clear distinction between discussing lab things and discussing her academic endeavors. In lab we discussed lab matters, during our frequent lunch meetings we discussed medical school. Luckily, the distinction worked and allowed us both to manage the different capacities of our relationship.

     Working in the lab with my student this summer has been a teaching experience. As a graduate student, my SURES student is the first person I have had the responsibility to train. Seeing her growth in laboratory independence has been THE highlight of my summer.  She is now able to carry out experiments on her own with little to no supervision. I am excited for the weeks to come, as her and I will begin working on her poster presentation on her summer research.

     Not only has working with my student provided me a hands-on teaching experience, I have also increased my personal profile. Specifically, my interactions with my student allowed me to hone my networking skills, resulted in an increase of my personal contacts, and gave me a completely different perspective on the coaching aspect of mentoring. Most importantly I learned that coaching entails of helping one meet their personal goals despite the difference of their goals when compared to one’s own trajectory. This experience as a SURES Near Peer Mentor has had a tremendous impact on me, and has solidified my career choice to pursue Academia. I am truly grateful for the program and this experience.

Brittany Rice, M.S.

Nutritional Sciences Doctoral Student

Graduate Research Assistant