Mentors/Advisors

A mentor or advisor is not required for the YES Competition but can be extremely helpful in the development of your project. A mentor/advisor may help you formulate an idea and act as a consultant and offer advice, but the actual work on the project—the study design and analysis of the data—must be carried out independently by the student competitor. You must be able to demonstrate how you have advanced the project independently, and research project reports must clearly describe the extent of any involvement by mentors or advisors.

A mentor or advisor should have a clear understanding of the YES Competition project guidelines. You, the student, are the researcher, and the project must reflect your own concept and content. Your mentor/advisor can help you evaluate your study design before you begin your research and can give you relevant feedback as you progress. They can help you understand the application of epidemiological methods that you employ in your research as well as assist you in thinking through future applications and directions for further research. You may obtain help from others on tasks such as accessing data or editing the analyses of your results; however, in the end, what you produce must involve your own thinking, analysis, and writing. In a nutshell, you must have complete ownership of your research.

Next Page: Judging & Awards