VIBS

Good Vibes at PORT Mentors and Fellows hail from:

Keeping connected can sometimes be a challenge, but it is essential to the program’s effectiveness and success; linking researchers who are at different stages in their careers, from a variety of disciplines, and from four sites is a mainstay of PORT.

  • We have developed various strategies to ensure that this “connectedness” prevails. For example, PORT’s 13-week required graduate seminar takes place via videoconference; Mentors and Trainees participate in PORT’s annual meeting and workshop; they are only a click away from one another through PORT Forums, which is accessible via PORT’s home page; and most recently, we have instituted Virtual Interactive Brainstorming Sessions (or VIBS, pronounced vibes as in “good vibes”).
  • VIBS provides the opportunity for PORT fellows and mentors to meet periodically, in real time, via videoconferencing, to discuss a variety of topics that can include research proposals and grant applications, presentations of manuscripts to be submitted for publication, work in progress, Ph.D. defense proposal presentations, etc.

The first VIBS took place on November 28, 2005. PORT fellow, Dr. Allison Brazier and PORT mentor, Dr. Joan Bottorff presented: "Using the PORT Sites to Facilitate a Pilot Study on CAM: Preliminary Plans"

Approximately 20 PORT fellows and mentors from across the country engaged in a discussion of the potential contribution of this study in terms of advancing knowledge and facilitating collaboration amongst the four PORT sites. Follow-up VIBS are in the planning.