At the HFAN research group, we are mentoring the next generation of scientists not only as researchers, but as scholars, collaborators, and future leaders. Our lab’s training model is designed to develop students’ technical, intellectual, and leadership capacities through a structured, student-centered approach that reflects the rigor of federal research environments while honoring the humanity of each learner.
We train undergraduates through a tiered, project-based mentorship model that combines skill-building, professional identity formation, and meaningful participation in real scientific discovery.
From the moment they join the lab, students are invited into real scientific conversations through protocol walk-throughs and open-ended lab discussions. Many of our project directions began as student questions. As students progress in their research, they increasingly shape the design and rigor of our methods. Students play key roles in pilot testing and optimizing experimental procedures; identifying edge cases or flaws in protocols; recommending improvements based on hands-on use of software, tools, and stimuli; and providing feedback that enhances reproducibility and clarity. Their lived experience of the workflow often reveals what needs refinement long before a reviewer ever sees it.
1. Tiered Mentorship Ecosystem
Students enter a deliberately structured ecosystem of near-peer and faculty mentorship that grows with them across semesters, turning curiosity into skill, and skill into scientific leadership. Each student is supported by structured mentorship from both faculty and advanced peers—receiving personalized guidance while also practicing leadership. As such, our research becomes a self-sustaining learning ecosystem, where every new cohort inherits a stronger foundation than the last. We ensure that insight and care are passed on, not lost.
Emerging Researchers (new members) develop foundational skills. They build core research competencies such as data collection, literature synthesis, and responsible conduct of research.
Research Associates (experienced members) take on roles such as mentoring new trainees, leading protocol refinements, or analyzing complex datasets. They lead the scaffolded training of the emerging researchers.
Research Scholars (advanced leaders) shape scientific questions, co-author manuscripts, and may serve as co-investigators on funded projects. By the time students are Scholars, many are ready to enter PhD or MD programs with experience more advanced than many first-year grad students. These more advanced members spot inefficiencies, design improvements, and build tools that newer students can inherit.
Students return each year not to repeat tasks, but to level up. That longitudinal engagement enables mastery of complex tools and publication-quality analyses. Returning students also help build documentation, workflows, and decision logs that create continuity across grant cycles.
2. Project-Based Learning
From the outset, students participate in full-cycle research experiences. From question generation to dissemination, students make substantial contributions to projects—often in the high-stakes domain of medical image perception. All projects are selected to align with students' interests while advancing our lab’s federal research agenda.
3. Structured Skill-Building
From a sequenced onboarding curriculum to rotating student-led meetings and technical skills workshops, students move through a structured arc of skill mastery. Students are trained across semesters to pursue funding and communicate scientific impact; skills that are essential to federally funded science. Skill-building is cumulative, developmental, and tracked across semesters. Protocols, scripts, and training materials become increasingly refined as they pass through multiple cohorts.
Skill milestones include:
Completing core training in human subjects research, including compliance with regulatory standards, ethics, and human subjects protections.
Learning how to collect high-quality data with the eye tracking hardware on which our research relies.
Reviewing relevant literature and helping design an experiment.
Analyzing data, creating data visualizations, and co-authoring a presentation on the results.
Training another student researcher on how to use our equipment and follow our research protocols, and acting as a mentor towards a junior team member.
Presenting their discoveries at conferences.
Preparing and submitting a grant proposal.
Students that achieve all of our codified milestones are recognized at the end of the year in our "All Star" award ceremony.
4. Professional Identity Development
Our students are mentored not just as assistants but as emerging professionals. By the time they become Research Scholars, many students are co-investigators on federally aligned projects, and are competitive for graduate fellowships.
5. Inclusive and Relational Pedagogy
HFAN fosters a lab culture of care, joy, and justice. Our training practices are trauma-informed and equity-centered. Values like equity and inclusion are practiced and transmitted across cohorts via our tiered mentorship system.
We prioritize:
Relational mentorship that affirms student identities
Transparent expectations, compassionate feedback, and treating every student as a future colleague.
Active cultivation of belonging and community
We believe rigorous science and inclusive pedagogy are not only compatible; they are inseparable.
HFAN students leave with more than research skills. They leave with scientific voice, strategic clarity, and the power to shape national conversations. Some have presented at five or more professional conferences before graduation. Many have authored publications. All are trained to lead.
Want to join us? Learn how to apply to HFAN.