The first face-to-face meeting occurs during the kickoff workshop held at UC Davis. Students are given an introductory overview of the program, receive an introduction to toxicology, an overview of careers in toxicology, and responsible conduct of research training provided by the Tuskegee University consortium members.
During the kickoff workshop, mentees also get to meet and interact with other mentors. All mentors give presentations on their career paths into toxicology and on skills they use currently at work. Mentors also interact with mentees through group round-table discussions. Group activities such as tours of toxicology laboratories on the UC Davis campus and mixers are used to build relationships among mentors and mentees. A graduate student poster session emerges students into ongoing Phd programs at UC Davis.
The most beneficial part of this program would be that I gained a mentor, friends, and got to learn what is the field of toxicology is like. A I also learned a lot from CITI training and got to understand the basics that I need to know for conducting research in ethical manner.