{"398661":{"#nid":"398661","#data":{"type":"news","title":"The Mentor Experience","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EKirsten Parratt\u2019s experience as a mentor in the Project ENGAGES program is the result of a happy accident. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EParratt, in her second year as a bioengineering Ph.D. student, works as a graduate research assistant in the lab of Krishnendu Roy at the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience. When she joined the lab, Parratt found out that part of the gig included mentoring a high school student.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cI didn\u2019t know what to expect, but when the semester rolled around I saw what Project ENGAGES is about, what a great opportunity it is for these high school students to come in and work with us,\u201d Parratt says. \u201cUnlike a normal high school program in my experience, where a student may have five hours a week in the lab, these ENGAGES students are here for 16 hours, and then all summer, too. They really have a chance to get something done, and I like that.\u201d\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIt\u2019s time well spent, in other words. Parratt is mentoring Qwantayvious Stiggers, who is nearing the end of his junior year at B.E.S.T. Academy, an all-boys high school and one of three area schools served by Project ENGAGES (for Engaging New Generations at Georgia Tech through Engineering and Science). The others are Coretta Scott King Young Women\u2019s Leadership Academy and KIPP Atlanta Collegiate, a co-ed high school.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EProject ENGAGES aims to foster a deep interest in science among students in these schools, which have student populations that are predominantly African-American, with a high percentage of kids receiving a free or subsidized lunch. The goal is to raise awareness of the students to the worlds of engineering, science and technology through real-world, hands-on experience, under the guidance of world-class researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EFounded and chaired by Bob Nerem (founding director of the Petit Institute) and Manu Plat (Petit Institute member, assistant professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering) and managed by Lakeita Servance, ENGAGES is two years old. Currently there are 14 students in the biotechnology research track, administered at the Petit Institute, and nine students in the engineering research track, based at the Georgia Tech Research Institute.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAfter mentoring in the program for the past year, Parratt is basically hooked.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cI absolutely want to continue as an ENGAGES mentor,\u201d she says. \u201cA lot of it is just seeing your student succeed. You can\u2019t look at this kind of experience as taking up more of your time. It\u2019s about making a huge difference with these young students, and clearly, they think it\u2019s the coolest thing \u2013 the chance to really see cutting edge science. When I was their age, I would have given anything for an opportunity like this.\u201d\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EFor his part, Stiggers believes he is incredibly lucky \u2013 lucky to have made it through the vetting to become of Project ENGAGES; lucky to have landed in the Roy lab, where some research has focused on engineering articular cartilage. \u201cMy mother is dealing with articular cartilage problems,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve had the best of luck in getting everything I wanted here, and then to have an actual relationship between my research and my mother\u2019s health issue. I gave her a tour of the lab, and she was amazed.\u201d\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ELucky, too, he says, to be paired with Parratt. \u201cWe\u2019re a great team,\u201d he says. \u201cOne of the things I like about Kirsten\u2019s style is that she doesn\u2019t treat me like I\u2019m a high school kid. At lab meetings, she\u2019ll ask my input, and so will Dr. Roy. They\u2019re serious, so I\u2019d better have something to say.\u201d\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EParratt learned the rhythms of mentoring while earning her degree in Chemical and Biological Engineering at Princeton University. \u201cI had two fantastic mentors when I was an undergrad working in a lab,\u201d she says. \u201cI saw that mentoring was about helping student development. It wasn\u2019t just, \u2018here\u2019s how you do research.\u2019 It was more along the lines of, \u2018here\u2019s a class you should consider, and why,\u2019 or \u2018here\u2019s an opportunity that could help you along.\u2019\u201d\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ESo she welcomed the opportunity as a grad student to be a mentor at Georgia Tech. And it seems to be catchy, one of those \u2018gifts that keep on giving\u2019 things, because Stiggers hasn\u2019t even graduated high school yet and he\u2019s already thinking long term.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cI definitely want to be a mentor some day. I want to give something back, the way Kirsten has given back to me,\u201d says Stiggers, who is looking forward to another year in the Roy lab with Parratt. \u201cWe are the dynamic duo of Project ENGAGES.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/projectengages.gatech.edu\/become-a-mentor\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBecome a Project ENGAGES mentor\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECONTACT:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/node\/jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003EBioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"\u2018Dynamic duo\u2019 link up in the lab for Project ENGAGES"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Dynamic duo\u2019 link up in the lab for Project ENGAGES \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"\u2018Dynamic duo\u2019 link up in the lab for Project ENGAGES"}],"uid":"28153","created_gmt":"2015-04-23 09:21:05","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:18:03","author":"Jerry Grillo","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-04-23T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2015-04-23T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"398641":{"id":"398641","type":"image","title":"Kirsten Parratt","body":null,"created":"1449246371","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:26:11","changed":"1475895115","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:51:55","alt":"Kirsten Parratt","file":{"fid":"75741","name":"kirsten.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/kirsten.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/kirsten.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":355432,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/kirsten.jpg?itok=BXLXnOfK"}}},"media_ids":["398641"],"groups":[{"id":"1292","name":"Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB)"}],"categories":[{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"126581","name":"go-ProjectEngages"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/node\/jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003EBioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}