MICCAI 2018 Daily - Wednesday

17 Wednesday Mentorship Leslie Solorzano is a PhD student at Uppsala University. She speaks to us about being enrolled in the MICCAI 2018 Mentoring Program. Leslie, why did you decide to take part in the Mentoring Program? I just like to talk to people who are very experienced. It’s the first time I’ve come to MICCAI and I was very excited, so I wanted to talk to somebody who had experience of coming to MICCAI about what to expect. What is your expectation from the relationship? I hope to keep talking to my mentor. I’ve had a great time. She has been very nice to me. We met as soon as I arrived in Granada. We met with other people from her lab too, so it was very interesting. Are you talking more about careers, study, or locations? What are the kinds of subjects that you discuss? We have discussed a lot – all those subjects – and have met several times already. It has been very interesting. We talk as if we have been friends for a lifetime. We talk about where she works, I talk about where I work, and what we do. We also went to the Women in MICCAI lunch together, where it was very interesting to discuss life as a female researcher. Would you recommend this program to other students? Sure. I think it’s nice to talk to people who are already there in the field who know how to be a senior researcher. Would you forecast that one day you might mentor other people? Sure, I love to mentor, and have worked as a mentor in other programmes. Finally, do you already have thoughts about how the program could be improved in future? It would be nice as an added value to have research fields in common. It’s not mandatory, but it would be nice. It would also be helpful to know what is expected from mentor and mentee, because none of us knew. When we met, we didn’t know what we were supposed to do, so we just sat and talked. It would have been useful to know what was expected. Either some guidelines or simple advice, so that expectations are aligned between mentor and mentee.