Information for RISE Mentors

RISE students are expected to:

• Attend the program in its entirety. Students who depart the program prior to the Poster Symposium will not receive a certificate of completion.
• Work ~40 hours a week in lab, Monday through Friday 9 am to 5 pm. Exception: All RISE Internship students need to attend Monday workshops from 9 to 11:30 am.
• Attend all program workshops and mandatory social events.
• Complete an abstract and poster to be presented at the RISE Poster Symposium.
• Behave professionally while in lab and comply with all program rules and guidelines and the details outlined in their personalized Mentor-Mentee Agreements. This includes upholds ethical standards for research and respecting confidentiality of unpublished research.

PIs must designate a primary mentor (PI, postdoc, or graduate student) to supervise the mentee on a daily basis.

RISE mentors are expected to:

• Supervise their mentee for the entire six-week duration of the program.
• Attend the RISE Welcome Luncheon or ensure a lab member is in attendance to greet their mentee.
• Provide their mentee with a chance to work on a well-defined research project, with pre-defined goals and timelines, and aid them in crafting an abstract and poster to present their results.
• Provide adequate supervision Monday-Friday 9 am to 5 pm by lab personnel who have cleared a CORI/SORI background check and completed Protection of Minors training.
• Front the cost of printing the poster their mentee will present at the RISE Poster Symposium. Note: this cost will be defrayed by a $750/intern stipend issued after the conclusion of the program.
• Outline ethical standards, intellectual property policies, lab protocols, and documentation, as necessary.
• Communicate with RISE program leadership about any conflicts or issues that arise with their mentee, including tardiness and/or absences.

• June 29: Students arrive on campus.
• June 30: Welcome Luncheon, 12 p.m. First day of the RISE program. Following lunch, your mentee will return to the lab with you.
• July 31: Students must submit their abstract to rise@bu.edu.
• August 5: Students must submit their poster to rise@bu.edu. (Please note: students are responsible for printing their own posters using your lab account. The Summer Term office also requires an electronic copy of each student’s poster to track compliance with this program requirement. We will not share this poster on our website without your explicit permission.)
• August 8: RISE Poster Symposium, 1-3 p.m. Program concludes thereafter. See additional details below.

Welcome Luncheon, June 30, 2025, at 12 pm:

At the Welcome Luncheon, you will meet your mentee for the first time and complete a Mentor-Mentee Agreement that will set expectations for the subsequent six weeks.

• The luncheon will be held at the Metcalf Hall (2nd Floor of George Sherman Union, 775 Comm Ave).
• Please ensure that a member of your lab attends the luncheon to meet your mentee.
• Information about parking: If you are a non-BU affiliate traveling to BU from another institution and require parking for this event, please contact rise@bu.edu at least 2 weeks in advance of the luncheon.

Poster Symposium, August 8, 2025, 1–3 pm:

At the RISE Poster Symposium, students will present their research to their peers, families, and the BU community. We welcome participating labs to join us in celebrating our students’ hard work and accomplishments.

• Students will have their posters printed using your laboratory account. You will be reimbursed after the program concludes (part of the $750/student stipend goes towards the poster).
• FedEx can print posters for your students. Students will need to provide the BU lab account number for purchase and a copy of the poster on a flash drive. Students will be provided information on how to print their posters and given a FedEx form to use. Locations:
  • CRC – 115 Cummington Mall, 617-358-2679
  • BMC – 700 Albany Street, 617-414-2679.
• Information about parking: If you are a non-BU affiliate traveling to BU from another institution and require parking for this event, please contact rise@bu.edu at least 2 weeks in advance of the poster symposium.

Labs will receive a stipend of $750 per student after the program concludes. This stipend covers the cost of the students’ poster and defrays the cost of lab supplies they may consume during their internship. The RISE Program Manager will contact individual labs regarding stipends at the conclusion of the program.

• Mentors who are BU affiliates are asked to provide a BU account number to which payment can be issued. These accounts must be general unrestricted accounts (909*). Stipends cannot be issued to startup accounts.
• Non-BU affiliates should email an official invoice generated by your institutions’ accounts receivable department to rise@bu.edu. We will use this to issue a check.

Our students tend to be mature and capable beyond their years, but it is important to keep in mind that most of them are minors. As such, they are subject to legal protections that may not apply to your other mentees. To aid us in fulfilling our obligation to protect the students under our care, we ask you to observe the following BU Protection of Minors policies:

• Laboratory members, including PIs, that will be working one-on-one with mentees will be asked to complete forms authorizing a CORI/SORI background check. These must be submitted to the RISE Program Manager in person. Please bring a government-issued ID such as a license, passport, or state identification card.
  • To authorize a background check, please submit the CSI online form invite sent to your email, AND schedule a time for the in-person ID verification.
    • Full-time BU faculty and students need only complete a background check once every three years.
    • Non-BU faculty and part-time faculty, students, and staff must be background checked annually.
• Personnel who will be CORI/SORI background checked must also complete a brief, online Protection of Minors training, and email the certification of completion to rise@bu.edu.
  • This is a every two years training.
• If you would like to take students off campus for an event, you must contact rise@bu.edu so the office can obtain parental permission for them to leave campus. Permission to leave campus must be obtained each time your mentee travels off campus unless a standing arrangement is made. While off campus, students must remain with the laboratory members at all times. We define the Charles River Campus as the area on Commonwealth Avenue and Bay State Road between Kenmore Station and FitRec.
• Students working at Boston Medical Center must commute to their labs on the BU BUS, which typically runs every half hour in the summer. No other modes of transportation are permitted.
• Residential students working at institutions other than BU must commute to their labs on foot or by MBTA. If taking MBTA, they must travel directly from BU to the other institution, with no stops in between. We will provide MBTA passes each week for the purpose of commuting between BU and their assigned laboratory.

All students will complete Basic Laboratory Safety Training, Chemical Safety Training, and Biosafety Level 1 & 2 Training in BU’s SciShield system prior to arriving on campus. All students also sign BU’s Volunteer Agreement and Intellectual Property Policy.

In addition, BU and BMC researchers will be contacted if any additional forms are necessary based on the type of research the student will be involved in. These many include:

• Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) Application for Student Minors to Enter BU Laboratories
• Research Occupational Health Program (ROHP) Initial Health Questionnaire (Part A only)
• IRB: Please add students to your IRB protocol prior to June 30.
• Please email us instructions for accessing any training needed outside of initial laboratory safety. We will share this information with your student/s and ensure training is completed prior to the start of the program.