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.”
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