Speed Mentoring
Description
Mentoring relationships can develop organically, arise from formal matching or from chance encounters that reveal a connection or common purpose between two people. Speed Mentoring is an event designed to support all of these approaches by bringing together students, trainees and early career physicists with multiple mentors drawn from a pool of experienced AAPM member volunteers. Participants will engage in short focused conversations and maximize opportunities to reveal unexpected insights and synergies. This is a low commitment / low risk way for participants to experience the benefits of both providing and receiving mentorship, engaging with multiple mentoring styles and personalities, and dry-run potential mentoring relationships they may want to pursue later. We have organized 2 successful Speed Mentoring events at the 2024 and 2025 annual meetings, with attendance at each >100 participants. The speed mentoring event itself is 60 min. long event with 30 min prior for participants to be seated and instructed on how the session will proceed. Each mentee participant will interact with 5 different volunteer mentors in 5 rounds of 10 minutes duration each. At the end of each round, participants will rotate to meet with a new mentor, allowing 2 minutes between each round to transition to the next station. Mentee participants will be encouraged to come prepared with specific questions. Volunteer facilitators will circulate the room to help connect participants prior to each round.