\u201cOur vision is to make these programs part of UC San Diego\u2019s long-term identity,\u201d said Trejo. \u201cFIRST has given us the foundation. Now we\u2019re working to embed these practices into the fabric of UC San Diego so that every new faculty member has the support they need to thrive from day one until retirement.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
On-the-ground impact<\/p>\n
For the faculty hired through the FIRST program, the most significant benefits have been intangible. Several members of the cohort describe the experience as transformative \u2014 both personally and professionally \u2014 because of the community and structured support the program provides.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a new faculty member, you\u2019re often the most junior person in a department, and it\u2019s easy to feel isolated,\u201d said Melissa Campbell, MD, PhD, assistant professor of neurosciences at UC San Diego School of Medicine and member of the FIRST cohort. \u201cBecause we\u2019re all in the same phase of our careers, it\u2019s very different from being the lone junior hire. Here, we can talk openly about what we\u2019re dealing with and help each other through challenges that are unique to this moment in science.\u201d<\/p>\n
Campbell said the program fills critical gaps that new faculty frequently experience \u2014 especially when navigating the transition to independence.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing in FIRST means there are people thinking about you and making sure you have what you need to succeed,\u201d she said. \u201cYou get peer mentorship, which is invaluable, and then you get formalized senior mentorship where people are really paying attention. I feel incredibly well set up.\u201d<\/p>\n
These benefits extend to the lab as well. Adrian Jinich, PhD, an assistant professor with a joint appointment in the UC San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, said the program\u2019s support has already shaped the trajectory of his research group.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was the first person recruited through FIRST, and thanks to the support network and startup resources, I was able to hire my ideal senior research associate right away,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were also able to collaborate with campus researchers to build a GPU computing cluster that\u2019s now central to our AI-driven infectious disease research. That infrastructure exists because of FIRST.\u201d<\/p>\n
Above all, Jinich emphasized that the program\u2019s design \u2014 pairing cohort-building with structured professional development \u2014 are central to its positive impact on faculty.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou feel surrounded by this cocoon of support in every direction,\u201d he said. \u201cThe leadership is outstanding, the peer community is outstanding, and the whole thing is clearly designed to help us succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cOur vision is to make these programs part of UC San Diego\u2019s long-term identity,\u201d said Trejo. \u201cFIRST has…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":791596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-791595","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-san-diego","12":"tag-sandiego","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116562942323225890","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}