Effective language and communication are at the heart of good mentoring, grant coaching, and even discussing your own science. While there are ample resources for mentoring and teaching practice, we identified few resources specifically tailored for the language of the “one hour” session. Yet practicing language, especially around difficult conversations, helps future faculty members become better educators and better scientists. In this inaugural four-workshop series, we will  emphasize the importance of language during mentoring and discussing science, and then in the following workshops we will practice language for three relevant tasks – teaching technical writing, distilling your core scientific ideas through conversation, and supporting your mentees beyond the bench. Each workshop is meant to give you at least one language tool that can be used in future interactions with peers and mentees.

The workshops will happen each Wednesday in May (the 5th, 12th, 19th, and 26th) via zoom (registration links are below). If you are interested in the series, we are asking that individuals attend the first session. If you are unable to make the first session, a recording will be available and we will ask you to attest to watching the recording ahead of attending the other sessions. For the remaining sessions, we will only record lecture material, but not discussions to respect participants’ conversation.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email us! We’re looking forward to seeing you at some of the upcoming sessions.

Open to all Stanford affiliates, target audience are trainees (graduate students, postdocs, etc.). 

Session #1: The Power of Language

May 5, 2021; Noon-1 pm 

In a journal club format, you will be introduced to the concepts of non-content instructor talk and reflection to think about how specific language can be both helpful or harmful, especially when trying to create inclusive spaces. 

Goal take-away: The ability to recognize non-content instructor-talk and consider feelings induced by language.

Session #2: Reviewing and Teaching Technical Writing in One Hour

May 12, 2021; Noon-1 pm 

We will discuss strategies for editing and providing valuable feedback to a mentee including the print-out method, glossing, concept linking and finding your key words. *** Attendance  at Session 1: The Power of Language (May 5) or watching recording is required. 

Goal take-away: Understand the value of “glossing”, “print out”, “concept linking”, and “finding your keywords.” 

Session #3: Strategies for Distilling Your Core Ideas 

May 19, 2021; Noon-1 pm

We will discuss conversational strategies for helping a mentee or a peer find their core ideas. Finding the core ideas in your science is essential for making powerful figures and effective elevator pitches. *** Attendance  at Session 1: The Power of Language (May 5) or watching recording is required. 

Goal take-away: Appreciate the value of peer conversation for clarifying complex scientific ideas.

Session #4: Supporting Your Mentee “beyond the bench”, a Language-focused Workshop for Addressing Imposter Fears

May 26, 2021; Noon-1 pm 

This workshop will consider and identify types of “non-content instructor talk” that can be helpful for mentoring students through difficult situations, with an emphasis on addressing the imposter syndrome. *** Attendance  at Session 1: The Power of Language (May 5) or watching recording is required. 

Goal take-away: Draft and practice 1-2 sentences to address imposter syndrome with a mentee.

Meet the Workshop Leaders: 

Hoda Abdel Magid, PhD, MHS is a postdoctoral research fellow working with Dr. Lorene Nelson and Dr. Michelle Odden in the Department of Epidemiology & Population Health and the Center for Population Health Sciences. She is also a fellow in the Big Data-Scientist Training Enhancement Program (BD-STEP) at the Palo Alto VA. Her graduate career research promoted the understanding of new and emerging tobacco products use among adolescents and young adults. She received her Masters of Health Science in Environmental Epidemiology from The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2015 and her Doctorate in Epidemiology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2018 with a focus in Social Epidemiology. Dr. Abdel Magid’s current research builds upon her previous training to further understand chronic disease risk behaviors and leverages spatial epidemiology to examine health disparities among socially-marginalized communities.

Jennifer Wilson, PhD is currently a SPARK fellow in the department of Chemical and Systems Biology studying pathways models for identifying druggable targets, working with Kevin Grimes. Recently she completed a CERSI postdoctoral fellowship with Russ Altman and previously, she completed her PhD in Biological Engineering with Doug Lauffenburger at MIT. As a graduate student, she became interested in coaching scientific communication when she served as a fellow in the Biological Engineering Department Communication Lab. She is particularly excited about coaching for personal statements and fellowship applications and is excited to be a part of the Grant Writing Academy.