ISBI Daily - Friday

shaping that project and steering it in a direction. I think that is one of the biggest things that I struggled with and that I see as well, that balance of keeping progress and momentum when some of the things you try do not work. It can be a bit disheartening. And so yes, it is interesting, having been through it as a part of my PhD. I hope that I can let my students know that it is a normal process in research and that they feel supported in having somebody to talk ideas through, but that we are together selecting an appropriate path to pursue, not that I have the answer and I’m waiting for them to figure it out. We’re working together on something novel. Did you see dropouts also? No, I haven’t had any dropouts. But you heard of? Oh yes, for sure. I think there are people who don’t really know what it’s going to be like before you start, and then everybody’s experience is different, based on the lab that they join or the project they get assigned. And so, that’s something that I try to do as a mentor, is there are changes that happen through your lab through funding, that there are certain directions that you pursue and certain directions that you don’t. But I like to try and find out what my students enjoy and help them incorporate more of that aspect in their projects. Probably you were able to prevent dropouts. I’d like to hope so. [ Laughs ] I mean, I love getting undergrad students involved in the lab, because I think that it is a really good experience for undergrads to see whether grad school is something that would interest them, and also they’re a really necessary support for graduate students, because there’s a lot of jobs that research involves, that are repetitive tasks that aren’t the best use of a graduate student’s time. I like getting undergrads – and actually, that’s how two of my PhD students and two masters students came up, through 6 Friday ISBI DAILY “ We all have intrinsic motivators, but they’re not all aligned… ” Jessica Sieren