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<h1>Individual career planning, skill building, and connecting with professionals within and beyond academia</h1>
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<h1 class="page-heading">BEST Career Bootcamp (TBMH 5106, 2 credits)</h1>
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Stayed tuned for more information regarding our Career Bootcamp series, which will be offered Spring/Summer of 2014.  This series of workshops will introduce trainees to Individual Development Plans, and will include a series of career roundtables with PhD’s from a variety of professions. More info will be available in the coming weeks!

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<h1 class="page-heading">Professional Development Course (TBMH 5106, 2 credits)</h1>
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The BEST program will also facilitate matching students to internships of longer durations as they come available, and will provide a limited number of travel stipends to attend internships outside the Roanoke-Blacksburg region. If you have already identified an internship and would like to apply for a travel stipend, please contact Carrie Covey (<a href="mailto:cgcovey@vt.edu">cgcovey@vt.edu</a>). A programming committee will determine if the internship meets the program goals.

This course will be offered each Spring semester, starting Spring 2015. Class time will include guest lectures from various biomedical professionals, who will present case studies and exercises designed to provide an understanding of various biomedical career paths, and how these professionals interact to promote biomedical research and the implementation of important discoveries.  Additional focus on career development planning and building scientific communication skills.

<em>Location:</em> Course instruction will take place at Virginia Tech facilities in Roanoke and/or Blacksburg.

<em>Student Commitment:</em> Trainees will attend class for 2 hours per week for one semester at Virginia Tech. Trainees must commit to attending all classes, and completing all reading and written assignments, including completion of an Individual Development Plan. Trainees will complete a course assessment questionnaire that should take 10 minutes to complete, and the annual BEST Survey that should take less than 30 minutes to complete. This BEST survey will be issued annually for 10 years.

<em>Eligibility:</em>  This course is required for all students in the PhD program in Translational Biology, Medicine, and Health (TBMH), and open to students in other biomedical graduate programs at Virginia Tech as part of the BEST program. Space is limited, and we encourage non-TBMH students to apply as early as possible to secure space in the course.

Postdoctoral trainees who are <span style="text-decoration: underline;">within three years</span> of earning their doctorate are eligible to audit this course as part of the BEST program (0 credits), but must attend all classes.

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<strong>SIGNUP SHEET:</strong>

Trainees who are not TBMH students will need to sign up here to receive instructor permission to register for the course. Space is limited and trainees will be selected in the order in which they sign up. Trainees must sign an informed consent form and return it on the first day of class.

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