- PRIME helps Ph.D. students become stronger mentors and foster interdisciplinary collaboration.
- Sindia Jimenez-Rivera, Ph.D., created PRIME to strengthen mentorship and student support.
- PRIME’s inaugural cohort included 15 students, with plans to expand its microcredential program and reach more students.
Over the summer, the inaugural cohort of the Ph.D. Research and Interdisciplinary Mentoring Experience, known as PRIME, celebrated its graduation.
The University of Florida mentor-development program is designed to help Ph.D. students become more effective mentors for undergraduate researchers. With 15 students across the university, they strengthened their mentoring skills and earned stackable microcredentials validated by the UF Graduate School.
Sindia Jiménez-Rivera, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Engineering Education, or EEd, began PRIME this past summer due to her own doctoral experience, conversations with faculty peers and research on adjustment experiences during critical career transitions. Jiménez-Rivera said PRIME students gained a strong — and unexpected — sense of community.
“Our students become better researchers because of PRIME.”
“They were able to see that they could talk about science and personal stuff with people outside their labs,” said Jiménez-Rivera. “My research shows that when Ph.D. students go after their second year, after their academic requirements are covered and start doing research, some of them feel isolated. PRIME has provided a space for them to build community.”
Ron Masse, Ph.D., a Genetics and Genomics Candidate and NSF graduate research fellow, appreciated the communication between mentor and mentee, along with an emphasis on collaboration.
“I’ve mentored a few undergraduate students, and I’ve always tried to keep it as a teacher-student relationship instead of a collaborative relationship,” Masse shared. “So, I think moving forward I’ll make sure that my undergrad or whoever I’m mentoring has a greater say in what directions we’re moving in, staying open to their ideas, listening to them as opposed to just trying to teach someone something.”
First-year mechanical and aerospace engineering student Safa Shahid shared how the PRIME community supported her journey in becoming a mentor.
“This program gave the right platform to mentor students,” said Shahid. “It takes a whole village to become a good mentor, but I think believing in yourself and your mentor, being consistent with checking with them and constantly motivating them is enough to get something great out of every student.”
Jiménez-Rivera received her education in Chemical Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. She began her teaching journey at Santa Fe College, where she developed her research interests around transfer students in engineering. She now leads the Engineering Communities & Participatory Change Lab, or ECoPaC, an interdisciplinary research group focused on how students and professionals navigate critical career transitions in engineering education, learning environments and workforce pathways.
“One of the things that came out from our work on graduate education was the role that identity and validation can play in students’ persistence,” said Jiménez-Rivera, “PRIME helped me to translate that research into practice.”
To kickstart the program, she collaborated with fellow engineering faculty members to develop a training program to support doctoral students engaging in research. As PRIME co-director, Malisa Sarntinoranont, Ph.D., professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, or MAE, coordinated the course material and ran the sessions alongside Jiménez-Rivera.
“The most rewarding part was witnessing the lively discussions. Students were able to share their own experiences and learn from the experiences of others,” said Sarntinoranont.
Sarntinoranont was instrumental in supporting the program’s early phases, helping coordinate with different Research Experience for Undergraduates programs, or REU, as well as other summer research programs in the college.
Another integral member was Tommy Angelini, Ph.D., physics professor in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He reached out to Jiménez-Rivera when she was developing PRIME, and she joined Angelini’s award-winning National Science Foundation Trailblazer project. The research Angelini conducted with his team supported Jiménez-Rivera’s efforts to create PRIME’s material.
“Honestly, it is a relief as a scientist and engineer to have somebody training my students to become good mentors,” Angelini said. “People like me are not experts in that kind of training, and we need programs like PRIME, led by people like Sindia, to cultivate the talent and capabilities of our students. Our students become better researchers because of PRIME.”
Douglas Spearot, Ph.D., the Newton C. Ebaugh Professor and MAE interim chair, was also engaged in the initial program development. With his involvement in the NSF REU, he emphasized the importance of multidisciplinary mentoring.
“Most REU sites funded by the National Science Foundation are multidisciplinary in nature. Our theme of ‘engineering for healthcare’ crosses mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, biomedical engineering and physics disciplines. This is critical so that the participants in the program can experience a wide variety of different research paths as they are developing their future plans,” said Spearot.
Angelini agreed.
“To work together we need to learn to speak each other’s language. The PRIME mentorship training cuts across all these fields, providing a common framework they can all use to develop their mentoring skills and, more generally, guide them in professional development,” he said.
Walter Lee Murfee, Ph.D., professor and senior associate chair of the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, assisted the development of PRIME from his experience leading multiple summer programs for undergraduate and graduate interactions.
“The success of making PRIME happen goes well beyond measurable impacts. The start of the program is a culture changer that establishes both a pragmatic and conceptual framework for enhancing graduate student training,” said Murfee.
With the support of the NSF Trailblazer efforts, Jiménez-Rivera is looking forward to expanding PRIME’s sustainability by growing the microcredentialing program “PRIMERS.”
“I hope Sindia gets the support she needs to make PRIME part of our institution, serving as a resource for any large programs on campus in need of workforce development and mentorship training,” said Angelini.
To get involved with PRIME, contact Jiménez-Rivera at rivera.jimenez@eng.ufl.edu or Sarntinoranont at msarnt@ufl.edu.