There are many important aspects to having a successful career. One aspect often overlooked is making sure you have a community of peers. Communities provide more than just support for everyday life and challenges. They are great for building networks, developing co-mentoring relationships and gaining leadership experience. Coming to a large campus, like the NIH or a college campus, can feel like you have landed on a different planet. Everything is so different. Finding welcoming and supportive groups and peers can help ease that transition. But, it can also help you prepare for the next step in your career.
While the resources below are specific to the NIH, all universities have similar groups to make you feel welcome. Check your campus list of organizations. This is not an exhaustive list of groups available, but is meant to provide an idea of what types of organizations exist. All of these groups are welcome to everyone in the NIH community.
- The Graduate Student Council and the postdoc association Felcom both support trainees by providing social events, career networking and communities for intramural trainees.
- NIH Black Scientists and Friends Network, an informal group dedicated to the mentoring and career enhancement of Black scientists at NIH. For more information, contact Dr. Roland Owens.
- LGBT-Fellows and Friends helps its members thrive in their professional and personal lives by addressing issues unique to the LGBT community. Join the LGBT-FF listserv to learn about up-coming LGBT-FF seminars, professional development activities and networking opportunities.
- The NIH SACNAS (Society for Advancing Hispanics/Chicanos & Native American in Science) chapter provides a trans-NIH resource to provide a forum to network, share successes and strategize about future goals. For more information and to learn about upcoming events, join the NIH-SACNAS listserv.
- The Women of Color Research Network supports all scientists interested in raising the voice and visibility of Women of Color (WOC) in biomedical and behavioral research. This new social media site is for women of color and everybody interested in diversity in the scientific workforce. Visit the Web site to join.
- MOM-DAD-DOCS seeks to provide mentorship, support, and networking to intramural trainees (basic or clinical) with children. Contact Lori Conlan (conlanlo AT mail.nih.gov)
- The Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity Management plays a lead role in making certain that representatives of all groups feel comfortable and can work optimally on the NIH campus.
- Visiting Fellows Committee, ~60% of the NIH postdoc population is visiting from other countries. There are over 20 country groups to connect you with fellows from around the world: https://www.training.nih.gov/country_support_groups
