One of the best ways to encourage students to enter a field and to assure their advancement is by providing them with role models and mentors. A supportive environment is one of the best things we can offer our younger colleagues, and mentoring is one the best ways to create that environment. This session of Open Space will provide a time when graduate students and established scientists can meet and exchange information on the many aspects of becoming a scientist. Although we welcome discussion of technical research questions, we also hope to use this opportunity to desl with questions of gender, social aspects of teaching and research, faculty expectations at research and teaching insitutions, obtaining funding, departmental politics, and other aspects of scientific work that are seldom discussed.

Key words: funding, graduate students, mentoring, teaching and research