Jessica Sue, BSc, MHSM
Sydney Cord Blood Bank
Sydney, Australia
Madison Paton PhD
Cerebal Palsey Alliance
Melbourne, Australia
Co-chairs of the ESP subcommittee,
ISCT Australia and New Zealand region
The Australia and New Zealand Early Stage Professionals (ANZ ESP) Subcommittee proudly contributed to the 2023 ISCT Regional meeting in Perth, Australia. Here, we curated a session that included two parts: 1) a showcase of the best ESP abstract submissions and 2) a panel discussion on mentoring with leading ISCT influencers.
From a regional survey conducted last year, we understood that it was important to ESPs to have tools that supported their career development. We heard that the community was particularly interested in learning more about mentoring. Our ESP session aimed to directly address these needs and empower our ISCT members at all stages of their careers. We were delighted to have ISCT President Professor Jacques Galipeau open the session, presenting an overview of ESPs and how we can contribute to the ISCT community.
PART 1
Over 30 minutes we listened to works from three ESPs, Dr Alicia Didsbury (ANZ ESP Committee Member, Research Fellow), Hannah Newnes (PhD Candidate; presented by supervisor Dr Jason Waithman) and Naveen Kumar (PhD Candidate). We learnt about their extraordinary work across cellular and immunotherapies for cancer, and extracellular vesicles for neonatal lung injury. In discussion with audience members, Dr Didsbury’s reflection on working as an ESP within her field, in the ANZ region, was particularly meaningful. Here she shared how she is building networks and collaborating to strengthen her research, and highlighted unique challenges within her cancer research field as well as within New Zealand. These themes set the stage perfectly for the following panel discussion.
PART 2
The ANZ ESP Subcommittee were honoured to have Professor Dominic Wall, Associate Professor Ngaire Elwood, Dr Janet Macpherson and Dr Rebecca Lim give us their time and expertise on all things mentoring. All panel members have previously been mentors in the ISCT ESP Mentoring Program and have had experience in formal and informal mentoring. We opened the session with an icebreaker, asking each panel member ‘Where were you 10 years ago today?’. We were given a unique, first-hand insight into their careers and even their personal lives, and where mentoring, network building and collaboration fits in.
We then opened the Slido segment of the session, seeking audience participation to kick off the interactive component. The Slido received an overwhelming audience engagement score of 92%, highlighting the interest in the session. From 81 participants, 64% indicated that they had had a mentor before. A strength of the panel discussion was the ability to highlight positive and negative experiences, with honest discussion. This sense of openness was reflected in responses from the audience poll with the prompt, “If you have had a mentor, what is one word to describe your experiences?” (result pictured below).
Following this, the audience submitted questions via Slido and voted on questions for the panel. The session invited passionate discussions around roles of mentors in comparison to PhD supervisors, differences between the two, how to choose a mentor, establishing meaningful relationships and even what to do when the mentor and mentee might not be the best fit for one another (‘It is ok to end it!', was the resounding response from the panel). As the discussions progressed, some key take home messages emerged, including the importance of individuals proactively investing in their networks and mentoring relationships at all stages of their careers. Dialogue around the different forms of mentoring and the benefits (both personal and professional) for both mentors and mentees arose. Dominic, Ngaire, Janet and Rebecca all shared with the audience what it means for them to be mentors, with all agreeing that the discussions and time they spend with their mentees are often the best part of their day. Encouragingly, the panel shared that they learn many valuable lessons from their mentees too, and empowered audience members who may have previously had doubts.
Our subcommittee was honoured to have the opportunity to present this session, and we hope this gave the audience a unique perspective on mentoring. Whether ISCT members are thinking about seeking a mentor, or being a mentor, we have no doubt that this session sparked interest and gave our audience the confidence they need to start the process.
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