This past fall, the BE Communication Fellows launched “the BEnch,” a graduate student-led blog designed to increase communication within the department and across the field of biological engineering. 

Led by BE Communication Fellows Tony Kulesa and Jen Nguyen, the group of 10 BE graduate students has been taking turns producing weekly articles focused on life as a graduate student within this rapidly evolving field.  Past topics have ranged from getting an industry job to balance between competition and collaboration. Despite having a soft opening for the blog in October, some posts have already been picked up by social media and have garnered more than 2,000 reads.

As Communication Fellows, the group invited MIT Science Writing Program Director Thomas Levenson to help them better understand the genre of blog writing prior to launching their site.  “It’s hard to prioritize discussion ahead of research productivity in this increasingly competitive world of academic science,” shares Kulesa. “We wanted to dephase discussion and put it online.” 

Initial blog posts have been created by the Fellows themselves but the group is hoping to invite more entries from other students both in and outside of the department. “Because graduate school is such an individual experience, it’s been so helpful for me to hear other students’ perspectives,” says Nguyen. “I’m looking forward to gaining even more contributers and commenters to broaden the conversation.”

Although the BE Communication Fellows primarily focus on providing individual writing and speaking coaching students and post-docs in our department through the department’s Communication Lab, the BEnch has been a fun and challenging side project that is helping to connect the next generation of scientists with ideas and with each other.

So, the next time you are killing time between protocols or need a break from that journal article, think about pausing for a moment on the Fellows’ virtual park BEnch.

For more information on the BEnch, visit their blog at: http://thebench.mit.edu/.

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