Our Time 1998

T his year was the ninth year IMSA students had been given the opportunity to engage themselves in a unique and exciting program. In the Mentorship program, students were given the opportunity to leave campus to go to a specific place, such as a mu s eum or laboratory, to learn hands on about a certain field or topic of interest. The students researched enough information to put together an oral and highly visual presentation, which was presented on IMSA's annual Presentation Day at the end of the year. This researching and presenting of information was the essence of the Mentorship program. Students were given the opportunity to choose which field they wanted to work in, and the diversity of the research was, as Dr. Peggy Connolly, director of the program, said, "important because good work is driven by the students' passion." Fields of research ranged from everything from plant genetics to cell biology to immu– nology. Not all students were scientific, as students worked in topics such as humanities and economics, as well Even though it was only once a week, Mentorship was an important experience in a student's academic life. Dr. Connolly explained the significance of the program as a "transformation" in education. "We are breaking the traditional model of the teacher telling the students information. In the Mentorship program, the students create new knowledge through their own research," she explained. After a year in Mentorship, students were expected to present their information at IMSA in Presentation Day, in which Mentorship students each gave their own 20 minute speech. Other students found the day to be inter– esting and educational. Junior Genny Schaack said, "I liked going...because it gave me a chance to see what others were doing....it made me think about possibly getting a Mentorship of my own ." Many other students were inspired to take their own Mentorships after observ– ing Presentation Day. qyi am tffinterlong (Dr. MarkjKorrell Thomas Jordan EdMoyer Margaret Pennington Michael Sloan (Dr. (David Workman 134 ( S^cademicsy