National Hispanic Science Network Posted on January 20, 2009 Dr. Nalini Negi lauds the mentoring relationships developed in the National Hispanic Science Network.

Being part of NHSN has been very productive for me. I'm a Summer Research Training Institute NHSN pre-doctoral fellow graduate because I'm no longer a pre-doctoral person. But it has been very useful in terms of the development of my dissertation idea, in terms of the development of my research agenda, and now in terms of sustaining that and helping me strategize the next sort of phase in my career.

I mean they were able, the senior mentors that I have accessed like Avelardo Valdez, Alberto Mata and J. Brian Page have been instrumental in terms of me talking to them and thinking through what are some of the things that I need to do to build my research agenda and to fine-tune some of my research ideas.

And like I mentioned previously, they were the ones that suggested to me, "Yeah, you want to work with transmigrants, but do you really know what's happening on the ground? Have you talked to these guys?" I'm like, "No, not really." "Well, go out there and talk to these guys. Find out what's happening with them. Find out what they're talking about or what they're experiencing."

But for example, one of the most fruitful, I guess, things, or concrete things that has come out with my engagement with NHSN is that Avelardo Valdez, who's a senior person in terms of drug abuse with Latinos, became my committee member, and he guided me through the process of my job search, and he's been a key mentor of mine. And even now, I'm going to meet with him a little later, and we're going to talk about, "Okay, I'm a first year junior faculty, what do I do? What do I need to do to navigate the complex system of academia, et cetera?"

So that network, I think, has been very instrumental in shaping me and guiding me through the process of being a doctoral student to now being a junior investigator. And I recommend any doctoral student or junior person to become involved in these networks because I strongly believe that they're very invaluable.