Psychology Doctoral Student Julie Milligan Hughes
So the best thing
for me about being in the IE Pre-Grad internship
program, as a graduate student, has been that is has given me the
opportunity to practice a role that is very important in my field. In
psychology, which is my department, I feel that it's really important to
be learn how to be a good mentor to students. And being a mentor in this
pre-graduate internship program has given me the chance to explore that
role and to learn what it's like to be personally responsible for the
growth of a student in my field. This experience has been invaluable and
unique because, even though in my research lab here at UT we work very
closely with undergraduate students and rely on them very much, ultimately
their experience as helpers in my lab is the responsibility of my mentor.
If they're to grow, it's because my mentor helps them. And I haven't yet
had the experience of being responsible for my own mentee's growth in the
field, and being in the IE program has given me the opportunity to learn
what that's like, and to understand what skills are necessary, and to
practice using those skills, to become a good mentor.
