IMP_NEWS's blog

The Incentive Mentoring Program is now registered on Goodsearch.com an online search engine that will donate money to us for every search. The search engine is powered by Yahoo! so you will still get good-quality results. Be sure to "select a charity" (or type in "Incentive Mentoring Program" and click "verify") before you search to make sure we get credit. However, once you've started, the site can remember your charity choice, and you can also set up a search-engine toolbar for convenience.

Sarah Hemminger has been selected as an Open Society Institute (OSI) Baltimore Community Fellow. Her goals for the OSI fellowship are to serve additional classes at Dunbar High School and build sufficient infrastructure to replicate the IMP model in new high schools throughout Baltimore.

OSI funding will help permit Sarah to lead IMP full-time as Executive Director. With 18 months to devote to expanding IMP to serve more students and building the infrastructure necessary to carry IMP forward, Sarah will have the chance to fashion a lasting program with a powerful impact.

IMP has been awarded a generous $69,056 grant by the Abell Foundation. In addition to supporting the existing IMP program, proceeds from the grant are being used to enroll a third cohort of 9th grade students at Dunbar High School and institute a new “GrandParent Program,” which allows experienced mentors (“GrandParents”) to link IMP families and students.

The employees of Booz Allen Hamilton of Annapolis Junction recently donated school supplies to the students of IMP. On September 8, Deon R. McGuire delivered backpacks, binders, folders, pens, pencils, and flashdrives. When IMP student Brian Daniels walked into the cafeteria at Dunbar and saw the tables filled with supplies he exclaimed, "WOW, it is academic Christmas." The IMP students, families and mentors are thankful for the generous gift.

View the pictures at:
http://incentivementoringprogram.org/photos.html?albumid=538113149285969...

The Incentive Mentoring Program was selected as a 2009 finalist for the Echoing Green Fellowship for social change entrepreneurs.

The Bold Idea: Empower struggling teenagers to break the cycle of poverty, drugs and lack of education by surrounding them with “families” of mentors who fill critical gaps in academic and social support.

Dhaujee Kelly, IMP Alum, received a scholarship to spend her summer vacation teaching at the Parijat Academy in India.

Konwar, Rajiv. "US student teaches students in Assam village." The Times of India. 25 May 2009.

Read her blog here!

Diversity Recognition Award
Melissa Dattalo (IMP Mentor) received the Diversity Recognition Award from Dean Brody and the Johns Hopkins University Diversity Leadership Council

True grit, plenty of gumption: Sarah Hemminger

Sarah Hemminger, a 28-year-old Johns Hopkins biomedical engineering graduate student, talks with Albert Pittman, 17, one of the Dunbar High School students participating in the Incentive Mentoring Program that she started five years ago for at-risk teens. Ms. Hemminger drives Albert to school every day to help him stay out of trouble.

SOURCE Student Community Service Award 2009

Please join SOURCE in recognizing the contributions of this year’s awardees. We extend our appreciation to all of you who have dedicated your time and skills to the community throughout this academic year.

Gordon Cohen

Messner, Rebecca. "Can 'families' of mentors turn around troubled teens?" The Urbanite Magazine. Issue 48: June 2008.

At the first meeting of IMP, Hemminger flew solo, using pizza as the incentive for a group of kids who, she says, didn’t want to be there. “I explained to them that no matter what they did to me, I wasn’t going to go away, so they might as well get on board.”