ESD Participates

In Disability Mentoring Day

By Lois Slavin, ESD Communications Director – November 20, 2004

On October 25, 2004, two members of the ESD community participated in the Disability Mentoring Day, sponsored by the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission and MIT’s Office of Human Resources and Staff Diversity Initiatives/Affirmative Action. The event was designed to provide engineers who have disabilities with information about a variety of career options.

Dan Frey, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Systems and Ann Tremelling, ESD Assistant Director and Administrative Officer, met with an engineer who was interested in learning about transitioning her experience in mechanical engineering and modeling toward a new career in rehabilitation engineering.

Tremelling gave her an overview of MIT and ESD, which was followed by a meeting with Frey. “I had worked in rehabilitation engineering back in the early 1990’s, so I thought I might be able to provide some useful information,” said Frey.

They discussed the general field and potential careers options. Frey then shared his views on the differences in working at large design and manufacturing companies, like Hosmer, and smaller ones, such as Therapeutic Recreation Systems.

They also explored various career possibilities in rehabilitation research and development, especially jobs associated with colleges and universities. According to Frey, the Lemelson Assistive Technology Development Center (LATDC) at Hampshire College seemed to pique her interest.

Asked why he chose to participate in the program, Frey noted, “It seemed like a nice thing to do and it was related to my past research interests. I'm glad that MIT and the State of Massachusetts set up this program.”

MIT Human Resource Specialist Sharon Clarke said, “We can't thank ESD enough for participating. It was a huge success. The engineer could not believe that she actually received advice from an MIT professor. And she has since been hired by Raytheon.”