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Research & Service Leadership Symposium

Getting Connected

Finding Student Team Members or Collaborators

RSLS Discord

RSLS is excited to announce the creation of our RSLS Discord group!

You are invited to join this community and develop topic groups to connect with like-minded students.
You will need to set up an account to get started, but then you can reach out directly to other students.

Foothill Clubs

Joining a club is another great way to connect with other engaged individuals and teams. They are always looking for new members. More importantly, many clubs are actively developing projects in research, service, and creative arts!

Here are a few actively seeking participant to develp RSLS projects:

The Psychology Club
Foothill American Chemical Society (FACS), email facs.foothill@gmail.com
Fund the Future
Creative Writing Club

Visit the Foothill ICC for a list of active clubs to get connected!

Finding & Working with Mentors

Every student and team can benefit from having an advisor or mentor to inspire, instruct, coach, review progress, and encourage when difficulties arise. Working with a skilled mentor can become a professionally enriching experience.

Mentors can be club advisors, faculty from across the campus, staff and tutors. Whether you’ve been directly involved with these individuals through classes or clubs, or you are just looking for an individual with expertise in your topic, there are many mentors at Foothill ready to guide you!

Below are some ideas for finding and working with a mentor(s) for your project.

Starting with Your Instructors & Club Advisors

If you are developing or submitting a project that you started in one of your classes or clubs, congratulations, you already have a built in mentor--your instructor or advisor! With very few exceptions, your instructors and advisors are eager to assist you in turning class assignments and club projects into RSLS projects.

Depending on your comfort level, you can reach out to your current instructors with a casual email or talk to them during office hours to request their support. However, we also recommend sending a more official request (see below). All instructors appreciate a thoughtful, well-crafted letter!

Finding Mentors

Your search for a mentor will most likely begin by identifying a prospective teacher, tutor, staff member, or club advisor that shares your passion for the project topic.

If you are having difficulty getting started, follow these tips!

Reach out to the RSLS Coordinators, Mike McCusker at mccuskermike@fhda.edu and Allison Herman at hermanallison@fhda.edu.
Attend the RSLS Workshops.
Stop by the Learning Resource Center (LRC) to chat with subject tutors.

Letter of Request to Prospective Mentors

The next step is to send a letter to a prospective advisor that introduces yourself and your ambitions. Foothill’s faculty and staff often have skills and interests beyond the classes they are teaching this quarter. Reaching out with a well-crafted request for mentorship can work well.

Use the Mentorship Request Template to guide you. You can get assistance on drafting the letter from the LRC as well.

Working with Mentors

Once you connect with your mentor (or more than 1 mentor), you will work together to set up the collaboration that works for you. Maybe you just need your mentor to help you meet deadlines. Perhaps you want more hands on (virtual) guidance on strategies and methods. It’s up to you!

The winter and spring workshops can be a place to connect with your mentors and teams as they are designed to help you meet the application and Symposium deadlines.

Community Partners!

Foothill Campus has a number of exciting opportunities for engaging in the community and participating in research, service and creative arts, including internships, competitions, and campus challenges. The great thing about these activities is that you can double-dip! You can develop a project for, say, the Business Innovation Challenge, or the ASFC PSA competition, for example, and present it at the RSLS, or vice versa.

Check out these opportunities to get additional inspiration:

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