By: Kyle T. Enriquez, M.Sc. (G4)
Within the MSTP, thesis defense presentations are an under-explored but valuable way to gain collaborators, learn key details about potential mentors, and benefit from the specific interests of other students. While all MSTP thesis defense advertisements ask that trainees “Please make every effort to attend”, students don’t feel they are specifically welcomed or served by their colleagues’ thesis defenses. As a student defending this year, here I discuss everything I have gained from attending MSTP defenses, and everything I hope younger trainees can learn from upcoming thesis defenses.
The announcement of every thesis defense in the MSTP comes with an encouraging “Please make every effort to attend…”, intended to assure those interested that the open part of the thesis defense is just that. As a trainee defending this year, it means my mom, my sister, my mentor, and the people that supported me in this thesis will all be in the same room to hear about my thesis and what I have to contribute to the scientific community. It also means that junior trainees in the MSTP have the opportunity to see what comprises a thesis defense in my field and gain the opportunity to advance work in that field. As a junior trainee though, I remember it was very infrequent that I or my colleagues felt comfortable attending thesis defenses. They seem very far away or only intended for the people who had helped put that thesis together. During M1 and M2, I excused myself by spending time in the anatomy lab or doing additional Anki cards, if I wasn’t on the wards when the defense was scheduled. As an early G-phase student, the next experiment or departmental seminar was always around the corner.
I am not and was not alone in this. In conversations with junior trainees across the program, it appears the “I didn’t contribute and don’t know what I could gain from the experience” is a largely conserved sentiment among busy Vanderbilt MSTP trainees. People attend the thesis defenses of their friends, roommates, and of the people whose theses they have read at 2AM the month before the thesis was submitted. Often, the Venn Diagram of these populations is close to a circle. I contend that the thesis defense has a broader value to facilitate near-peer and peer-to-peer mentorship, specifically in ways that allow for students moving back to medical training to serve the MSTP. From a business perspective, junior students are missing an opportunity; in the thesis defense you get to support a colleague in a way that can develop a professional relationship with a senior student, to learn about pathways to graduation and gain a sense for the graduation expectations of a PI or department, and even form collaborations.
The Vanderbilt MSTP is one of the leaders in physician-scientist development, nationwide and by extension, worldwide. Our LT serves on the AAMC, APSA, and numerous other boards that provide the latest and greatest models for MSTP programs. Further, LT members publish with these groups in the journals that set the standard for physician-scientist development, including on near-peer and peer-to-peer mentorship frameworks we benefit from as trainees. In this unlearning of junior trainees thinking they aren’t welcomed at thesis defense presentations, my goal is for junior trainees to recognize these presentations are yet another formal opportunity for peer-to-peer mentorship. As an M1 and M2, I benefitted from thesis defenses of senior students in the lab I was joining. I asked and learned what expectations were for publications, for timeline, how well a PI understands the dual doctoral training pathway and more. Those conversations started with a congratulatory message after their thesis defense, where I learned more about the breadth of work that was done by an MSTP in a particular lab. I took the opportunity to see which other faculty were in the room and on that individuals committee, to learn about the lab expectations by seeing who was present in the room, and got a prime example of what was “enough”. All of this information not only led to me choosing my PhD lab, but my committee chair and other committee members. These conversations and observations gave me go-to resources for documents relevant to my F30 application. Further, they showed me who valuable collaborators could be in the lab I decided to join, which not only supported my thesis work but resulted in my authorship on their works. In short, thinking proactively about the department I may want to be in led me to attend dissertation defenses in that department, which in turn fundamentally shaped the outcomes of my thesis work.
A final consideration is that junior trainees don’t feel comfortable in these spaces, where they are explicitly welcomed. It is worth noting that as a senior trainee, it feels forced to invite someone to your dissertation defense unless they have a vested interest. Outside of my lab, my family, my committee, and my collaborators, explicitly inviting others to my thesis defense feels as though it lacks humility. As I approach my own defense, I have forced myself to think about how best to serve the MSTP, and hope that the next time you see “Please make every effort to attend” that you remember:
It is indeed a real offer.
You’re helping make someone’s day.
And there’s plenty in it for you, if you’re willing to take the opportunity.