Mentoring

I believe mentoring is crucial not only for the professional development of my mentees, but also for my development as a leader. To date, I have mentored two undergraduate chemistry majors from UW-Madison, and I am grateful for the opportunity to work with them and privileged to call them friends.

My first mentee, Ziyuan Li, was an important contributor to my site-selective functionalization of carbohydrates project. With this project now complete, Ziyuan has transitioned to a chemical biology project in the Tang lab.

My second mentee, Jessica Wu, was instrumental in completing the site-selective functionalization product. Jessica graduated from UW-Madison in December 2018 and now works at PPD, a contract-research laboratory located in the Madison area.

I have also been a member of the Catalyst program, within the UW-Madison Department of Chemistry. Catalyst was instituted in 2016 with the intention of helping first-year students from underserved populations find success in graduate school. As a Catalyst member, I met monthly with other graduate student mentors and first-year mentees for group discussions and one-on-one conversations. During these talks, we discussed topics including: mental health in graduate school, finding a work-life balance, choosing a research group, conflict and time management, and professional development, among other things.