Useful links
Welcome!
Hello! Before you explore the website and its contents, please be aware that for me, safety and humour come first. In terms of the former, the following contents of the video shown below is never allowed in my laboratory or home of abode:
I take pride in my environment and saving the Earth from illegal disposal of toxic chemicals; also saving my researchers from injuries and explosions in the laboratory.
Safety starts HERE!!
Let us get started!
Please use the College Education Guides to help job seekers, professionals, and students understand the changing landscapes of these programs and their impact on careers and employment. You can view the guides here:
– https://www.collegedegreesonline.com/
– https://www.socialworkdegrees.org/
Here is a guide that explains the most common financial misconceptions to help students make informed choices about their spending, savings, and borrowing. Check it out below:
Common Student Financial Misconceptions
During the effects of the coronavirus, I would like to share a college student’s guide to ergonomics. This guide has super-helpful information and tips for college students on how to stay safe and keep active.
As a matter of respect, let us hep all veterans: As you may know, on average, 3,300 people are diagnosed with mesothelioma each year, and nearly one-third of those patients are our veterans. To date, tens of thousands of veterans have been diagnosed with asbestos-related diseases. Please learn more about how Mesothelioma Veterans can receive assistance, please click here!
Of importance, let us practice research integrity and prevent scientific misconduct while thinking about responsible conduct of research (RCR), which is a must!! Click here to learn about RCR (credit must be given to Prof. Wayne Hynes of Old Dominion University for preparing the website on the use of RCR); then see more as shown below.
If you are passionate about becoming a researcher in STEAM, you need to have “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance” and motivation as in
and
One thing though, every student needs Resilience and Wellness!!
See the video entitled “Resilience and Wellness” by Sharon Milgram, Ph.D.
In the face of a student mental-health crisis, a few colleges are putting wellness into the curriculum. See those below by clicking on the following red links:
- Taking in the good
- Practicing gratitude
- Maintaining wellness
- Cultivating self-compassion
- Keeping your sense of humour
Why Pearls of Wisdom?
The pearl is the product of pain and a wound that has been healed. As we accept the challenges in our own lives, we will also be building a string of precious pearls. The shell of the oyster is pierced, and an alien substance or grain of sand slips inside.
On the entry of the foreign irritant all the resources within the sensitive oyster rush to that spot and begin to release healing fluids that otherwise would have remained dormant. And, as the irritant sand is continually converged upon by the fluids a pearl is made…
Pearls to Remember, by Barbara S. McDonagh
POW = R: Pearls of Wisdom = Resilience
POW = R is a prevention-focused medical student resilience program that is designed to increase general medical student wellness and mitigate or prevent anxiety, depression and burnout. The approach is grounded in positive psychology, existentialism, cognitive-behavioral therapy and mindfulness.
A training component offered through POW = R is Balancing Life Talks (BLTs).
Your BLTs may include:
- Resilience in Medical Education: What is it and why is it important?
Does it impact patient care? - Self-awareness: What makes you happy? What do you fear?
- Compassionate Communication: Connect your values to your life
- Dealing with Difficult Emotions in Medical School
- Setting Boundaries: Learn to say no
- Sympathy – Empathy – Compassion
- Self-compassion: Avoiding burnout
- Maintaining Motivation and Finding Meaning
- Attitude of Gratitude: Integrating positivity into your life
- Freedom in Forgiveness: Becoming unstuck
- Mantras, Meditation, and Yoga
- The Art of Expression: Discover how our thoughts, feelings, words and actions produce energies that attract like energies into our lives
- Using Cognitive Behavioral Techniques
- Cooking Healthy Class
- Eating Healthy on a Budget
- Stages of Group Processing and Team Building
From my HUMOUR, my upbringing, my thoughts, and having great mentors really made me to write the following entities. I will begin with me as an undergraduate student in Jamaica.
From my first research experience as an undergraduate researcher (academic year: 1988-1989) in the Department of Chemistry, The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica, and right until today, I have come to realise that the current crop of undergraduate and graduate students of today needs proper mentoring in becoming successful researchers in the STEM subject of chemistry. As such, I have compiled the following to guide for my researchers. Others researchers and readers are welcome to utilise my compilations.
Happy reading!!
Last night, it dawned on me that everyone (yes, everyone) needs tips and tools for mentoring. Why not get a taste of what I mean by clicking on the following links:
- The National Research Mentoring Network with loads of mentoring materials for mentees and mentors!
- Needed: Flexible Mentors in Science
As such, please do the following:
- Responsible Mentoring of Researchers
- Tips and Tools for Mentoring Undergraduates as a Graduate Student
- Six (6) tips for effective undergraduate research mentoring
- Working with undergraduates: Making the most of mentorship.
- How to mentor graduate students
Researchers, please know what to look for when choosing a mentor by clicking here!!! Now watch the following videos:
Through the eyes and effect of mentoring on Ms. Jessa Faye Arca at the University of Southern Mississippi:
Now, let me help you if you are interested in going to graduate school; then click HERE to read the following before you go any further:
15 Tips on Surviving a Ph.D. Program
If you would like to join our research group as an undergraduate researcher, please complete the following fillable pdf form and e-mail the completed application to Dr. Alvin Holder at e-mail: aholder@odu.edu:
Holder laboratory application form-2019-2020
One of my dreams is to visit a Native American Reservation, but to work towards that dream, I do support the following:
Native American College Student Support Guide: Scholarships, Retention Strategies & Resources
The Importance of Diversity in Healthcare
Minority Students & Healthcare Education
Please give support to them all by clicking on the above links; then go onto the following:
It would be wise to click on Good & Required Laboratory and Chemical & Laboratory Safety Information; then read them thoroughly before going to the other items as shown below:
SAFETY IN THE LABORATORY:
Click here to see a video of serious safety violations in a laboratory!!
Would you like this to happen to you?
A young lab worker, a professor and a deadly accident (the link, click here)
Can we learn from that accident via this link?
Topics on safety in the laboratory:
The following links are also great:
http://www.science.fau.edu/chemistry/chemlab/General/safety.html
http://chemed.chem.purdue.edu/genchem/lab/safety/clothing.html
The Best Chemistry Gift Ideas
Why undergraduate researchers should carry out research in a laboratory before they graduate from a university:
The Benefits of Undergraduate Research: The Student’s Perspective
Why Undergraduate Research?
Ten simple rules to make the most out of your undergraduate research career
Five Essential Skills for Every Undergraduate Researcher
How to get an REU (Reseach Experience for Undergraduates)
Summer is for Research: Students and REU Programs
STEM Graduate Programs and Fellowships:
Programs and resources for prospective and current STEM graduate students — including funding opportunities and professional development programs and resources are found by clicking here!!
A must for postdoctoral fellows, graduate and undergraduate students:
Pay attention to grammar when you write anything, please see this link
How to write an excellent research report:
Is graduate school right for you? Please click here to find out the answer.
It is a must to read the following:
Please don’t but your head against the wall, just read this note. I have been there!
Surviving in what you perceived as a walk in the park!!
Do you wish to be a professor? If the answer is yes, please read this article entitled “A Year in the Life of a New Professor: Inside the exhilarating frustrating, messy transition to being the boss“.
GOOD LUCK ON BEING A BOSS!
Hints for job searches:
How to enhance your chances of getting a job, a fellowship, or a summer internship by using proper reference etiquette
More to look at, read, digest, and learn about such etiquette
E-mail etiquette:
It is always wise to state the purpose of an e-mail, but begin it with a salutation.
Always have a subject, for example,
Subject: A letter of recommendation on behalf of Mr. Alvin Holder
Here is a suitable text to be inserted in the main body of the e-mail:
Dear Mr./Dr./Ms./Mrs./Prof. Smith-Johnson,
Good morning/afternoon, evening/night. I write this e-mail so as to send a letter of recommendation on behalf of Mr. Alvin Holder, who is applying for a job as a technician at your company. Can you please acknowledge receiving this attachment? If you need further information about Mr. Alvin Holder, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Thank you for your cooperation.
Yours sincerely,
John Smith, ON, GCMG, GCVO, K.St.J
Please click on the following items and learn more:
Do you know the difference between a curriculum vitae and a resume? If you don’t know the answer, please see the following:
The Online Writing Lab at Purdue (The Owl)
The Chronicle of Higher Education Jobs Site
Professional societies:
The Royal Society of Chemistry, U.K.
American Society for Microbiology
The American Association for Cancer Research
The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
VERY IMPORTANT:
American Society for Microbiology-The Leaders Inspiring Networks and Knowledge (ASM-LINK)
National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN)
Important external links as developed by the master of chemistry of the internet from way back when
Important conferences:
The Annual Biomedical Conference for Minoritised Scientists
Institute on Teaching and Mentoring
Other links of importance:
The role of laboratory work in university chemistry
Spectral Database for Organic Compounds (SDBS)
Responsible conduct of research (RCR):
In the first instance, please read the following link:
Stop ignoring misconduct
The NSF’s RCR statement:
“The Director shall require that each institution that applies for financial assistance from the Foundation for science and engineering research or education describe in its grant proposal a plan to provide appropriate training and oversight in the responsible and ethical conduct of research to undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers participating in the proposed research project.”
The Royal Society of Chemistry: Professional Practice and Code of Conduct
All researchers in my research group are REQUIRED to go to the following link entitled “ODU’s RCR and training” and follow the directions on how to complete the RCR course:
then they MUST complete the basic RCR training by using the following modules:
- Introduction to the Responsible Conduct of Research
- Research Misconduct
- Data Management
- Authorship
- Peer Review
- Mentoring
- Conflicts of Interest
- Collaborative Research
- The CITI RCR Course Completion
Biomedical researchers should also do the following:
- Using animal subjects in research (# 13301)
- Human subjects (# 13566)
For biosafety/biosecurity:
- Basic biosafety
- Blood-borne pathogens
An interactive video “The Lab” from the Office of Research Integrity
The ODU policy on allegations of misconduct
Topics of importance:
Graduate students’ resources:
The ACS Directory of Graduate Research (DGRweb)
SREB-State Doctoral Scholars Program: Increasing Faculty Diversity
Let me remind and refresh you by asking you to recap with the following entities:
Listen to me, but read this link first
How to survive in a graduate school
Ten Simple Rules for Graduate Students
Diversity issues:
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