Do you remember the science teacher who made chemistry come alive or the neighbor across the street who identified all the types of birds living in your yard? People with experiences to share make great mentors and the DO-IT project has lassoed some of the best.
About thirty people have volunteered to be mentors to the nineteen high school students enrolled in the DO-IT 1993 summer program. Most of these volunteers are engineers, scientists or post-secondary students with disabilities. They use computer resources such as electronic mail to develop relationships with the students.
Mentors who have signed up for the program represent a variety of fields. Volunteers include: Frank Cuta, a research engineer at Battelle Pacific Laboratories in Richland, Washington; Gregory Fowler, a software engineer working at Cisco Systems Inc. in Menlo Park, California; Ed Pottharst, a biologist for Seattle City Light; Rod Chard, a network engineer at U.S. West; and Todd Heywood a computer scientist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.
Several Mentors are students themselves including: Karl Booksh, a chemistry student at the University of Washington; Teddy Chen, an engineering/law student at Stanford University in California; and Kevin Berg, a computer science student at Seattle Pacific University.