# Program Specific Policies ### **Teaching Policy** There is no program-wide teaching requirement, but many students seek to take advantage of the opportunities to teach in a variety of modes and settings either because it enforces the mastery of core material, is intrinsically rewarding or because it is a major part of their career plans. Teaching opportunities include: teaching assistantships for the Core courses; teaching assistantships for additional Medical and Graduate School courses; one-on-one tutoring opportunities for graduate or medical courses; tutoring and special teaching programs at the Life Sciences Secondary School with which ISMMS has a special relationship; student mentorships in the RCR course; and student mentorships in the Introduction to Journal Club course. ### **Vacation Policy** The vacation policy for PhD students in Biomedical Sciences or Neuroscience is clearly stated in the [Leave Policies section of Chapter 3](/graduate-student-handbook/chapter-3/enrollment-and-registration/leave-withdrawal-and-readmission/phd-in-biomedical-sciences-and-neuroscience-student-vacation-policy.md). Please refer to that section for the complete policy. In brief, PhD students in Biomedical Sciences or Neuroscience receive two weeks of paid vacation each year. Time spent studying for courses, preparing for examinations, etc. is not considered vacation time. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://ismms-gs.gitbook.io/graduate-student-handbook/chapter-1-1/phd-in-biomedical-sciences-and-neuroscience/program-specific-policies.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.