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Each year a class of 10-14 fellows enters the program. The NIH expects them to have a ‘traditional’ post-doctoral experience in the laboratory, publishing at competitive levels. In addition, fellows have a mentored teaching experience following this outline:
Spring of Year 1:
Year 2:
Year 3:
The goal of FIRST is to train the next generation of professors, especially those from under-represented groups. Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) have traditionally placed a high value on teaching. This has led to the development of excellent teachers, many of whom are ideal mentors for FIRST fellows. It is our hope that the FIRST fellows’ mentoring experience with AUC faculty will result in FIRST fellows who have a deep understanding of the educational needs of undergraduate students, as well as the tools to enhance their teaching effectiveness. The AUC institutions benefit from the involvement of FIRST fellows in their instructional program, especially in the development and implementation of cutting-edge research techniques-based courses. FIRST and other programs like it contribute significantly to increasing the number of college and university faculty who excel at both teaching and research.
FIRST benefits both the AUC departments and the fellows. Teaching Mentors develop a diversity of project types, including:
Fellows teaching or co-teaching a course the Mentor has previously taught;
Fellows developing and teaching a new lab or lecture course;
Fellows redesigning and teaching a current course, which otherwise might not be offered;
Fellows partnering to develop a new course across institutions;
Fellows teaching a course developed or taught previously by other FIRST fellows.
FIRST Teaching Mentors are selected annually by their department chairs. Mentors are exemplars of teaching and mentoring excellence and are at a point in their careers amenable to such an opportunity.
New FIRST fellows are given a list of all potential Teaching Mentors each year. Fellows meet Mentors through formal and informal FIRST events and by directly contacting individual mentors.
Fellows and Teaching Mentors, with input from department chairs and FIRST administrators, together make the final decision on fellow/mentor pairs. The decision will be based on:
A FIRST mentorship project is a significant commitment, so a special effort must be made to maintain communication between the fellow and the mentor as well as between them, their chairs and FIRST administrators. To support such productive engagement:
In addition to the usual expectations of any successful mentoring relationship, FIRST mentors are specifically expected to:
Teaching and Research Mentors are also invited to join the fellows at the annual meeting of FIRST and the other similar NIH-sponsored programs.
Each department receives a monetary allotment for each FIRST fellow mentored by its faculty. Finally, in special circumstances, FIRST may request funds from the NIH for development of specific projects, such as laboratories or for other types of course development.