Mentor-Connect Mentors give back to the ATE Program by working with prospective grantees to transfer knowledge and teach successful grant-writing strategies as they mentor and develop the next generation Principal Investigators for the ATE Program.
Center Manager; MNT-EC, Project Manager; Nano-Link ; Nanoscience Lab Manager at Dakota County Technical College (DCTC)
Project Management, Nanoscience Technology
14
Mentor-Connect – 1.5 years, J ATE – almost a year, in general – 6 years (I was a student mentor at DCTC while I was there. I was assigned a student every year to mentor who was having trouble adjusting to college or struggling with their classes or their home life.)
I love to work with my hands, so I do a lot of gardening, rock hunting, crystal mining and wood working. I love to create things for other people and be in nature.
I own two Harley-Davidson motorcycles and have my motorcycle license and I am learning to ride again after 5 years of being off the bike.
Supportive, creative, resourceful
I have always liked helping people achieve their goals or get through a tough spot in life. It’s why I decided to get my BS in Project Management. I love learning from my mentors and using that knowledge in my everyday life. So, I like to give that back to other people. Not everyone is lucky enough to have a mentor, so I feel privileged to be able to help others achieve their goals, whether it’s with writing a grant proposal, writing a paper for J ATE or helping students navigate life. I mentor in my personal life as well. I am currently mentoring a young man who wants to earn his Project Management degree and take the PMP certification exam. It’s amazing to watch a person’s confidence grow under your direction. It is very fulfilling.
Yes, ATE is an amazing community. I was brought into the community in 2010 as a student going through the Nanoscience Technology AAS program at Dakota County Technical College. AT the time, Deb Newberry was the program lead and was the PI of Nano-Link Center for Nanotechnology Education. She saw potential in me and brought me to my first HI-TEC meeting. It was amazing to witness all the support and friendships that are present in the community. Almost everyone welcomed me with open arms even though they knew nothing about me. When I had to take charge of things at my home institution, everyone was so nice and helped guide me and mentor me so I could be successful. No one looked down on me and that was amazing because at the time I was really scared and nervous that I was screwing everything up. All the time I see leaders in this community taking people under their wings and helping to guide them and support them to become successful. Without being forced to, the ATE community helps each other through collaborations, proposal and personal mentoring, bouncing ideas off of each other for future projects and current ones too. Very rarely do I see anyone in this community that is unwilling to help out others.
Be realistic about what you can accomplish with the time and money you have. It’s easy to get caught up in what you want to do and who you want to help but spreading yourself too thin will cause issues. We all want to do it all but there isn’t enough time or money to be able to do that. So be real about what you can do to make the biggest impact in your community and build from there. We always want you to get more and bigger grants. Start where you can and be good at it.
I helped to mentor a proposal that was declined due to a technicality. It didn’t make it past the first stage, so it was never reviewed. We talked with them about why it was rejected and guided them on what to do next time.