{"432731":{"#nid":"432731","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Steady Hands of a Mentor","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003ESo you\u2019ve decided to become a mentor for an undergraduate student, but you\u2019re not sure who is going to walk through that laboratory door.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u201cYou have some undergrads who have never even touched a pipette before, and then you have some who have spent a lot of time researching in a lab,\u201d says Shannon Hill, a mentor in the Petit Undergraduate Research Scholarship program. \u201cYou\u2019re not sure who you\u2019ll be dealing with.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u0026nbsp;And that\u2019s sort of the point of becoming a Petit Scholar mentor \u2013 the opportunity to learn how to work with anyone. This is preparation for whatever may come next.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u201cWorking with different personalities and backgrounds and learning styles only improves your people skills, your ability to patiently train people,\u201d says Hill, a post-doctoral fellow who works in the lab of Raquel Lieberman with Petit Undergraduate Scholar Michelle Kwon. \u201cMichelle had no lab experience, but she\u2019s a great learner and has picked up everything we\u2019ve taught her very quickly, quicker than most.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EHill, who earned her Ph.D. in physics from the University of South Florida, believes that the ability to work with anyone who walks through that door, or sits down in the classroom, will make her a better professor one day. And it\u2019s something she\u2019s been aware of throughout her educational career.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EWhile this is her first experience in the Petit Scholars program, she\u2019s mentored 15 students during her time as a post-doc and a graduate student and learned early on that no two student researchers are alike. With Kwon, she got lucky.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u201cMichelle is motivated to go beyond what my expectations are,\u201d says Hill, who wants to be a professor with a lab of her own at some point. \u201cShe sees what needs to be done, and she does it. As a mentor, regardless of your student\u2019s skill sets and experience level, your job is to help make their projects better, to help them move forward. Progress looks different for different people.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EFor Hill, the college experience began with an interest in what she calls, \u201cthe medical side of things, and then I fell in love with physics.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EAnd then she met Martin Muschol, a professor who would become her Ph.D. thesis advisor. He introduced her to biophysics, \u201cand that helped bridge my two interests together,\u201d she says.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EIt was through the mentorship of Muschol and Dr. Chad Dickey at the University of South Florida Health Byrd Alzheimer\u2019s Institute that Hill ultimately found her way to her current work at the Georgia Institute of Technology.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u201cDr. Muschol was responsible for my training and the nature of my thesis project, which was very interdisciplinary,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd my doctoral work included a collaboration with Dr. Dickey, who eventually introduced me to Dr. Lieberman, suggesting the two of us would be a great fit.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p3\u0022\u003EHill\u2019s research focuses on how the body uses proteins to sustain itself and she wants to know, \u201cwhen these proteins become misfolded, how does that relate to disease pathology.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EAn offshoot of Hill\u2019s research, Kwon\u2019s project is entitled, \u0022Engineering mutant myocilin for a more thermally stable protein.\u0022\u0026nbsp;It\u2019s the kind of project that probably typifies the Petit Scholar experience.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u201cThere\u2019s longevity to the program, which is great, because it\u2019s an entire year of research, which is a big commitment for an undergrad,\u201d says Lieberman, associate professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. \u201cIt also requires quite a commitment from the mentors, who put in a lot of effort, because it takes a long time to get someone trained and up to speed to do anything advanced in the laboratory.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EIn Lieberman\u2019s experience, Petit Scholars who have worked in her lab have been authors on research papers and were intimately involved in the discoveries that emerged.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p2\u0022\u003E\u201cThey were able to see the results of their work,\u201d Lieberman says. \u201cAnd it goes both ways. Our mentors are able to see their students\u2019 progress. Someone like Shannon, who will continue in science and a career that will probably include leadership and running a lab, this kind of exposure is extremely helpful. I know that it\u2019s been helpful in my career.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p4\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECONTACT:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p4\u0022\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/node\/jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003EBioengineering and Bioscience\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Shannon Hill giving expert guidance in Lieberman lab"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EShannon Hill giving expert guidance in Lieberman lab\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Shannon Hill giving expert guidance in Lieberman lab"}],"uid":"28153","created_gmt":"2015-08-08 10:32:07","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:19:19","author":"Jerry Grillo","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-08-08T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2015-08-08T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"432721":{"id":"432721","type":"image","title":"Shannon Hill","body":null,"created":"1449256133","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 19:08:53","changed":"1475895171","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:52:51"}},"media_ids":["432721"],"groups":[{"id":"1292","name":"Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB)"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/node\/jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003EBioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}