Growing up in Science

Have you ever wondered what your advisor struggled with as a graduate student? What are they struggling with now? Growing up in Science is a conversation series featuring personal narratives of becoming and being a scientist. Growing up in Science was started in 2014 at New York University by professor Weiji Ma and is now worldwide. This article describes the origin and impact of the series. At a typical Growing up in Science event, a faculty member shares their life story, with a focus on the factors that shaped them, on struggles, failures, doubts, and detours. Common topics include dealing with expectations, impostor syndrome, procrastination, luck, rejection, conflicts with advisors, and work-life balance, but these topics are always embedded in the speaker's broader narrative. The series not only aims to bridge the gaps between faculty and trainees, but also to make difficult topics of academic life easier to talk about.