The Office of Education delivers workshops, programs, and individualized opportunities to a population averaging 350 trainees, including postdoctoral, visiting, and research fellows;clinical fellows and medical students;graduate students;and postbaccalaureate and technical fellows. The activities include, typically: public speaking workshops, job interviewing, writing and editorial services, grantsmanship and study section observerships, career presentations and counseling, teaching opportunities through the NICHD Becoming an Effective Scientist course for postbacs and skills workshops, and management programs. An annual retreat for fellows and graduate students is held for 100 people each spring to address scientific developments and careers, which includes fellow presentations and a poster presentation by each attendee. The program is developed and run by a fellow-student steering committee. Among the notable accomplishments from the past year: In May 2009, the Division of Intramural Research gave its second Mentor of the Year awards to Thomas Dever, Ph.D., investigator;Elizabeth Fozo, Ph.D. fellow. Two fellows received Diversity fellowships from OITE: Sydella Blatch, Ph.D. in the lab of Karl Pfeifer was renewed for a second year, and Yvette Pittman, Ph.D., in the lab of Thomas Dever received an award. Dr. Yabin Guo received an Intramural AIDS Research Fellowship. The DIRs first K99 was awarded to Wenge Zhu, Ph.D. by the NCI. The first three exchange students from the Chinese University of Hong Kong received their PhDs. An alumni network was established through Linked In, and is beginning to accrue members. FARE awards for 2010 went to 27% of applicants. A new careers web-based initiative focusing on industry was launched with BioCareers, along with several IC partners. Nine students were hired for summer 2009 with ARRA stimulus funds. New programs added to existing ones included management with UNC and leadership through OITE, as well as a workshop to learn about electronic submission through grants.gov. The average of all programs for which formal evaluations were conducted was 4.42 on a 5-point scale.
