From: Fry, Alan R. <alanfry@slac.stanford.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, December 19, 2023 6:17:50 PM
To: LCLS-ALL <lcls-all@slac.stanford.edu>; mec-u-all <mec-u-all@slac.stanford.edu>
Cc: lcls-intern-program <lcls-intern-program@slac.stanford.edu>; Freeman, Hillary <hillary@slac.stanford.edu>; Kim, Ji <jikim@slac.stanford.edu>; Garcia, Arturo <arturog@slac.stanford.edu>
Subject: Call for mentors, 2024 LCLS Summer Internship Program
Dear friends of the LCLS Summer Internship Program,
Welcome to the kickoff of the 13th year of the LCLS Summer Internship Program! This summer we will provide opportunities for ~25 fresh-faced, absurdly-enthusiastic, undergraduate students. In addition to providing stimulating, real-world research experience to the students, there are many direct benefits to LCLS and SLAC:
- Delivery of projects that directly benefit LCLS and associated science programs
- Development of mentoring and supervisory skills for staff
- Engaging groups that don’t typically have students or RAs
- Development of a pipeline for future talent
- Development of areas of overlapping interest with other groups at SLAC to help drive stronger links to LCLS
- Increased visibility of SLAC and LCLS across the academic community
- Increased diversity of people at SLAC/LCLS through targeted outreach to underrepresented and disadvantaged students
NEW for 2024: for the first time, we will be offering housing for the interns on campus at Stanford! This is a great opportunity for students to have a more enriching and engaging experience during their summer internship, as well as reducing the burden and stress of finding affordable housing in area. The compromise, however, is that the higher cost per intern will reduce the total number of interns that we will be able to support, and the start and end dates for the program will be more restricted to align with the availability of housing at Stanford. We will also be switching to an all in-person, on-site program this year. Additional details will be posted on the internship website.
To sign up as a mentor, fill out the following online form no later than February 9, 2024:
https://bit.ly/LCLS-Mentors-2024
Once your project is approved, we will provide access to a list of pre-screened intern resumes and ask you to select a few top candidates for your project. If you have already identified possible candidates, indicate this in the mentor form. Final assignments will be made by the Program Director with the goal of accommodating mentors' and candidates’ preferences to the greatest extent possible.
For people new to the program, here are a few details, and please visit the program website for more information. This site also has the links to apply for the position if you know of candidates who are interested in the program.
https://lcls.slac.stanford.edu/internships
- Your job as amentoris to define a suitable project (see #5) for the intern, guide the intern to complete the project, help relate the project to the bigger picture (your group’s activities, LCLS facility, SLAC as a whole), and help the intern prepare a poster presentation describing their project(s) at the end of the internship. We will provide mentor training and ongoing guidance to ensure that you are well-prepared for this role.
- The intern's job is to work on their assigned projects, contribute to day-to-day work efforts of the group (as appropriate - see #6), follow normal work standards (safety, work hours, etc.), and document their projects at the end of the internship in the form of a poster presentation.
- My job (with support from Arturo Garcia, Nina Lui, Anna Balmori, and many others) is to manage the program, e.g. match interns withmentors, work with HR to get the interns on-board at SLAC, organize intern group activities, and address issues when they come up.
- Your manager's job (or your job if you are both amentorand a manager) is to act as administrative supervisor for each intern in your group (e.g. fill out STAs, approve time-cards, and coordinate activities within the group).
- Intern projects should be relevant to LCLS (including LCLS-readiness for major projects like LCLS-II-HE and MEC-U), should be “completable” in the typical summer timeframe (10 weeks between June and August), and should give the interns useful, real-world experience. Good projects should teach interns new skills and be mostly stand-alone accomplishments - think in terms of something that they can put on their resume. If you have questions about whether your project is appropriate, I’m happy to discuss and help fine-tune the scope. All of the interns we accept have basic computer skills, usually a few science and/or engineering classes, some lab experience, etc. A few interns will have programming skills and specialized lab skills, and a few will have been at SLAC before. If you require very specific skills that can’t be taught as part of the intern’s project, list those in the online form.
- Most of the interns' time should be spent working on projects, but sometimes there are gaps - typically waiting formentors to provide feedback or additional direction - and during these times it is perfectly okay for interns to be kept busy doing something useful, if not quite as fulfilling or resume-enhancing. It’s good to have a few back-fill projects in mind - discuss with your supervisor and colleagues in your department for ideas.
- Being amentoris a commitment; you will need to provide frequent guidance and communication and be available to interns to keep them on track. If you are going to be away for an extended period over the summer, please ensure that you have someone else who can keep your interns on track during your absence.
- I strongly encouragementors to consider projects that can be done collaboratively by more than one intern, or that can be supervised/guided by more than onementor. More possibilities for interns to interact with other interns and a larger pool of SLAC staff will reduce the risk of isolation and periods of idleness.
- The reward for your hard work as amentoris that most interns are extremely eager and dedicated, and they are not distracted by any other work priorities other than what you guide them to do, so they can be amazingly efficient, even if they are learning what to do as they are doing it. A good summer internship can have a huge impact on a student’s career and provide SLAC with a pipeline of future students, employees, collaborators, and users.
Thanks in advance for your participation, and please share this email with your SLAC colleagues; anyone at SLAC can be a mentor as long as the internship project is relevant to the LCLS program. Get in touch with me if you have any questions.
Best regards,
Alan Fry Director, LCLS Summer Internship Program lcls-intern-program@slac.stanford.edu https://lcls.slac.stanford.edu/internships |
