Undergraduate volunteers

In exchange for their work in the lab, volunteers should expect to gain knowledge about how research is done and about how to further their careers in academia (if this is something they are interested in). Senior lab members (grad students & the lab manager) should be taking on a mentorship role around the volunteers, to guide them towards success in whatever endeavers they take on.

Although volunteers do not have as many opportunities to interact directly with Krista, they are encouraged to reach out to the Lab Manager or a grad student with any questions they may have (about their degree, grad school, research, or anything else you think we can help with!). Krista gets regular reports about the performance and commitment of volunteers, and those with strong performance will be prioritized for other positions when they become available, such as honours and specialization projects, and paid RAships.

Lab meetings usually aren't very relevant to volunteers, so they are not expected to attend (although volunteers might be invited to attend some meetings), but we do like to organize some volunteer-oriented events throughout the year to get them involved with the lab and other lab members. One popular example is CV smackdown, where we encourage all lab members to come to the lab meeting with a few copies of their CV, so other members can provide suggestions to make it even more effective for applying to jobs and/or grad school. We also like to host lab-wide gatherings where volunteers can mingle with lab members (and Krista!) in a more casual setting.