What is the TLC?
We are the CVRI Trainee Liaison Committee - TLC for short. Our current members are: Abi Yates, Gaya Mainkar, Yang Xu, Abbey Glick and Matteo Ghiringhelli. We are all postdocs and graduate students that work in various labs across the CVRI.
What Do We Do?
Since we started the TLC in the beginning of 2023, we have set two main objectives that we will work on, though we may add more in the future, depending on the needs of the department.
Our objectives are:
1: To improve communication between faculty and trainees
2: To further strengthen the cohesion between the trainees at the CVRI.
How do we do that?
To achieve these objectives, we host numerous social events at the CVRI. So far, that has included a trip to Yankee stadium to watch the baseball, a summer Sports Day and picnic, painting in the park, a visit from the welfare dog, yoga classes, pancake breakfast, and pumpkin decorating for Halloween with costume competition. Our future ideas for social events include a Board Games night and a plant potting social for department beautification.
To improve communication between the faculty and trainees at the CVRI, we attend meetings with Fil, Chris and Mikaela (every 2-3 months). This allows us to bring up any issues raised by the trainees, and to stay up to date with what is happening at the CVRI. All trainees can approach the TLC with anything that they would like to address with faculty: we are here both to mediate should you want to bring something up yourself, or to convey the message on behalf of trainees.
Bringing these 2 objectives together, we will start implementing “Happy Hour and Housekeeping” sessions the last Friday of every month, starting May 30th. During these sessions, Fil (or another faculty representative) will give an update on department life for all trainees, faculty and staff – this will include welcoming new hires, saying goodbye to people leaving and congratulating achievements such as publications and grants. Drinks and snacks will be provided for all to enjoy.
Do you want to join the TLC?
Right now, the TLC consists of 3 postdocs and 2 graduate students from 4 different labs. If you would like to join us, we invite you to join one of our meetings. Please reach out to any current member or email us at cvri.tlc@icahn.mssm.edu.
Questions, ideas and suggestions?
If you have any questions or suggestions (for social events for example) or would like our help with any CVRI-related matters, you can reach us on our email address: cvri.tlc@icahn.mssm.edu. Additionally, you can always approach any of us while we’re at the CVRI, we are more than happy to help you with anything CVRI-related!
Hope to see you at our next social!