Over year one (2022-2023) of The COMPASS Scholars Program – Developing Today’s Untapped Talent into Tomorrow’s STEM Cell Researchers we created the program’s basic infrastructure, launched the COMPASS program, welcomed our first cohort of five CIRM COMPASS Scholars across three departments in partnership with the Berkeley Stem Cell Center, and began initial recruitment activities in preparation of our second recruitment and admissions cycle.

Specifically, the Biology Scholars Program (BSP) developed, solicited, and launched seven COMPASS program-themed career development workshops and panels. Leading up to our first admissions cycle, we invited all BSP students to these workshops and hosted all who attended. As part of our recruitment and preparation effort, we ensured that our existing courses, IDS 96 and MCB 15, played a role in developing a pool of members who were research-ready and acquired sufficient information to make an informed choice about committing to a research program leading to a variety of careers in regenerative medicine. Moving into the selection process, the BSP developed a new COMPASS application, created selection criteria, established an interview protocol, solicited the COMPASS opportunity to current BSP students, reviewed applications, held student interviews, and selected our inaugural cohort. The BSP simultaneously developed and shepherded a faculty-student applicant “matching” protocol for the COMPASS program and conducted a Faculty Orientation for all assigned mentors. The Faculty Orientation meeting included a guided discussion on how to work with new COMPASS trainee(s) by way of mentorship agreements and individual development plans.

Further, over the 2022-2023 cycle, we created a new course designed for current COMPASS Scholars, MCB 198, containing a suite of regenerative medicine-themed topics. Additionally, the BSP created and implemented monthly Advancing Mentoring Practice meetings to support direct mentors’ (i.e., graduate students and post-doctoral fellows) successes and challenges in their work with trainees. Moreover, we developed pre- mid- and post- trainee surveys to assist in monitoring the progress and impact of our efforts. Finally, we launched our second round of COMPASS program-themed career development workshops and panels in preparation for the upcoming application cycle.