What does it mean to be a good mentor?

When I mentor students, I ensure that the learning environment is one where students are comfortable enough in that they do not feel threatened, are encouraged to think aloud, and feel a sense of belonging. I treat students with courtesy and dignity, and model this in front of other students to set the climate of the lab. Building strong relationships fosters a sense of trust, and working together on research projects in which students feel a sense of belonging ultimately enhances the quality of the work. This means facilitating bonding activities outside the lab such as...

The Scavenger Hunt of the Century 🔍 Stanford Edition 2024

Team Building Scavenger Hunts are fun and great ways to strengthen group trust and collaboration. It’s an inexpensive but effective way of bringing a team together, and an entertaining activity related to the university campus culture.

The Scavenger Hunt of the Century 🔍 Stanford Edition 2023

Team Building Scavenger Hunts are fun and great ways to strengthen group trust and collaboration. It’s an inexpensive but effective way of bringing a team together, and an entertaining activity related to the university campus culture.

Fall 2021 Graduation Celebration 🍾

Lab Coat Ceremony and Graduation Celebration for our 2021 Research Team Seniors, Eileen Lee and Sebastian Yang!

Eileen's Art Exhibition 🌱

Supporting our team members Eileen and Matthews’ Art Exhibition Grow a Garden to appreciate nature by relaxing with their plant prints, comics, paintings, and VR experiences. Eileen wanted to highlight that as life becomes more digitized, we turn to plants for reflection and care: gardening, planting seeds, and repotting to trace our own growth and well-being. Research shows that plants are healing for our mental and emotional health, serving as more than aesthetic objects and sometimes becoming our silent companions and friends.

Holiday Festivities - Ornament Making 🎄

The stress is REAL so I encouraged the team to ~take a break~ during the semester and destress with painting ornaments! ❄️🎨 no good science without mental health first!

Congratulations 2021 Spring Graduates 🍾

Traditional Lab Coat Ceremony and Graduation Celebration for our 2021 Research Team Seniors! I am so lucky to have worked with such a talented, motivated group of students for the past 4 years. I’ll cherish the cult-ish ~Cassie’s Army~ blanket forever.

St. Patrick's Day 2021 🍀

Congratulations 2020 Fall Graduate 🍾

Virtual celebration with the research team army, delivery of a ~personalized lab coat~ and cake to our Fall 2020 graduate: Dominic Calkosz, who has worked with me for the past 4 years, since we both started school at Carnegie Mellon.

Congratulations 2020 Spring Graduates 🍾

Our undergraduate Research Assistants couldn't walk across the stage at graduation, but we know they’re going to change the world. Virtual celebration with the research team army, delivery of ~personalized lab coats~ and cakes to our 2020 graduates: Emery Noll and Carter Williams, who have worked with me for the past 3 1/2 years, almost the same amount of time I’ve been in graduate school.

Autobiographies

The Scavenger Hunt of the Century 🔍

Team Building Scavenger Hunts are fun and great ways to strengthen group trust and collaboration. It’s an inexpensive but effective way of bringing a team together, and an entertaining activity related to the university campus culture.