{"274641":{"#nid":"274641","#data":{"type":"news","title":"STEM Students Sought for Virtual Mentoring Program","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EEntrepreneurs and innovators of late are keen on applying the idea of gamification, or introducing aspects of gaming into other products and services. In one campus program, it\u2019s now being applied to mentoring.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBreakThru, a virtual mentoring program funded by the National Science Foundation, pairs science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students with learning or physical disabilities and challenges with mentors who are faculty, staff, or employed in industry. Most of the mentoring takes place in the virtual world Second Life.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe want students to realize mentoring can be fun and can be done in an environment reminiscent of a game,\u201d said Summer Ienuso, postsecondary recruitment coordinator for the program, which is managed by Tech\u2019s Center for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access (CATEA).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe virtual world, in this case an island, lets users play games, fish, ride bikes, and shop in a marketplace. The program provides a small amount of virtual money that mentees can use to purchase things on the island while interacting with their mentors. Behind the scenes, Ienuso and others supervise and manage the world\u2019s operations to make sure interactions run smoothly.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe goal of the project is to encourage these students to persist in STEM-related careers and education\u0026nbsp;\u2014\u0026nbsp;either graduating with a STEM degree, or going on to grad school with a STEM focus or pursuing a career in a STEM field,\u201d Ienuso said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to develop a support system for these students to be able to persist and excel.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOnce the mentor\/mentee relationship has been initiated via email, the participants can then move on to Second Life, as well as any other media that appeal to them, including Skype, Facebook, Google Hangout, or even telephone.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe don\u2019t discourage any type of medium,\u201d Ienuso said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBreakThru is currently accepting applications from students who would like to be paired with a mentor, as well as from graduate-level students who are interested in mentoring students at participating high schools in Gwinnett, Greene, and Clarke counties. Mentors and mentees are paired based on background, education, and whether they have similar disabilities or challenges.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBreakThru is funded by a five-year NSF grant and is a collaboration between Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia; Georgia Perimeter College is also participating. Mentors and mentees receive a stipend for participating and are asked to commit to a year with the program, spending about an hour a week either mentoring or being mentored.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EStudents who are pursuing a STEM major, have a learning disability, and are interested in participating in BreakThru can contact Ienuso at \u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:summer.ienuso@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Esummer.ienuso@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E. More information about BreakThru is available at \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.georgiabreakthru.org\/\u0022\u003Egeorgiabreakthru.org\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EStudents paired with mentors, mentees in Second Life, with the goal of encouraging students to pursue in their STEM-related paths.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Students paired with mentors, mentees in Second Life, with the goal of encouraging students to pursue in their STEM-related paths."}],"uid":"27469","created_gmt":"2014-02-06 17:02:34","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:15:51","author":"Kristen Bailey","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-02-10T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2014-02-10T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"274661":{"id":"274661","type":"image","title":"BreakThru Mentoring in Second Life","body":null,"created":"1449244112","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:48:32","changed":"1475894964","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:49:24","alt":"BreakThru Mentoring in Second Life","file":{"fid":"198730","name":"mentoring_pods_005.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/mentoring_pods_005_0.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/mentoring_pods_005_0.png","mime":"image\/png","size":1369093,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/mentoring_pods_005_0.png?itok=WmOOytiC"}},"274651":{"id":"274651","type":"image","title":"BreakThru Mentoring in Second Life","body":null,"created":"1449244112","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:48:32","changed":"1475894964","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:49:24","alt":"BreakThru Mentoring in Second Life","file":{"fid":"198729","name":"snapshot1_014.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/snapshot1_014_0.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/snapshot1_014_0.png","mime":"image\/png","size":1185797,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/snapshot1_014_0.png?itok=SVkKZNcC"}}},"media_ids":["274661","274651"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/catea.gatech.edu\/","title":"Center for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access (CATEA)"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.news.gatech.edu\/2011\/02\/23\/learning-science-and-math-virtual-world","title":"Learning Science and Math in a Virtual World"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.georgiabreakthru.org\/","title":"BreakThru Program"}],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"}],"keywords":[{"id":"86031","name":"breakthru"},{"id":"358","name":"CATEA"},{"id":"1531","name":"center for assistive technology and environmental access"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71871","name":"Campus and Community"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:summer.ienuso@gatech.edu\u0022\u003E Summer Ienuso\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECATEA\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}