The new ’mentor matching’ initiative is designed to help FMI first-year PhD students to settle in.
The new 'mentor matching' initiative is designed to help FMI first-year PhD students to settle in. Starting a PhD can be daunting, especially during a pandemic, when uncertainty and social isolation can cause some extra emotional and logistical upheavals. That's why the FMI launched a 'mentor matching' initiative. By pairing senior PhD students with students who joined the institute during the COVID-19 pandemic, the initiative aims at helping newcomers meet their peers, navigate university bureaucracy, and familiarize themselves with Basel and the FMI. Settling into a new location, making new friends, choosing university courses, setting up a thesis advisory committee: starting a PhD can be an overwhelming mix of excitement and trepidation, and the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic don't make things any easier. FMI PhD representatives Eleonora Castelli and Carolin Warnecke know this well. In November 2020, as COVID-19 cases peaked in Switzerland, the duo discussed with Guidance Counsellor Piera Cicchetti about helping new PhD students to settle in by matching them with more senior students.
TO READ THIS ARTICLE, CREATE YOUR ACCOUNT
And extend your reading, free of charge and with no commitment.
