IMP_NEWS's blog

About Echoing Green
IMP was selected from a record-setting pool of 1,500 emerging social change organizations as one of 347 semifinalists in 2008.

Messner, Rebecca. "Offering Incentives to Stay in School." Johns Hopkins Magazine. June 2008.

"If something like this could be duplicated," says Dunbar principal Stephen Colbert, "if the city could invest money in more programs like IMP, the school system as a whole would be much better off."

Albert Schweitzer Fellowship

2009-2010: April Clayton, Arielle Stewart, Nance Yuan, Rajesh Sekar, Christina Sun
2008-2009: Helen Kinsman, Lara Kovell, Jeffrey Tosoian, Kathleen Lee, Matthew Peters, Kumaran Senthil
2006-2007: Jordan Leyton-Mange, Eric Tan
2005-2006: Daniel Bowers, Melissa Dattalo, Romina Wahab
2004-2005: Sarah Hemminger

Jackson, Kai. Interview with Sarah Hemminger (IMP Founder) and Judeith James (IMP Student). WJZ Channel 13 News. 20 Jan 2008.

"Teens who are doing poorly in school often have extenuating circumstances that factor into their failure. Poverty, homelessness, domestic abuse, lack of parental involvement are just some of the situations . . . "

SOURCE School of Medicine Student Group Community Service Award: Incentive Mentoring Program (2008)

"Partnership Spotlight: Dunbar Mentoring Project." Schools Monthly. Baltimore City Public School System. January 2008. pg. 21.

"The Incentive Mentoring Program’s goal is to transform teenagers who are failing out of high school into Baltimore City's most valuable role models . . ."

SOURCE School of Medicine Individual :
Daniel Bowers (2007), Melissa Dattalo (2007), Sarah Hemminger (2005)

11 June 2007: "A Remarkable Partnership Sets High-Schoolers on New Path"

The School of Medicine welcomed 17 recent Dunbar High School graduates to Turner Auditorium on June 6 for a special graduation ceremony. The students all had been participants in the Incentive Mentoring Program, a project begun four years ago by Sarah Hemminger, a doctoral candidate in Biomedical Engineering.

13 Feb 2006: "Inspiring a Turnaround"

"She sacrifices so much of her time for them. She is a second parent to some of these kids,” said Shadmehr, a professor of biomedical engineering, who has known Hemminger since her days as an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins. "If Sarah feels she needs to, she gets involved with finding them clothes, books or whatever else they need.”

9 Jan 2006: "Seven Recognized with MLK Jr. Community Service Awards [Sarah Hemminger]"

A student at the School of Medicine, a professor emeritus of biophysics and a nurse clinician at The Johns Hopkins Hospital will be among the seven Johns Hopkins associates presented this year with Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Awards, which honor unselfish volunteer work.

2006 Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Award: presented to founder, Sarah Hemminger

Two years ago, Sarah Hemminger asked Dunbar High School for the names of its 10 worst students. Given 20 names, Hemminger enlisted 15 biomedical engineering graduate students and medical students for a concept she called the Incentive Mentoring Program. She and her recruits not only began to mentor the 20 Dunbar students after school but required them to pass the good along by working one Saturday each month in such organizations as soup kitchens and by becoming mentors themselves to local grade-school students. After a single semester in the program, 70 percent of the Dunbar students passed all their courses; after two years, it was 80 percent. Two students received all A's, and two have been awarded college scholarships. Today, Hemminger's cadre of mentors has grown to 60, and she's set up an administrative structure to ensure that her program can continue after she graduates.

Winter 2006: "Dreaming Big: The Incentive Mentoring Program

When IMP started, its goal was to keep students in school and help
them graduate. Now, the focus has shifted to gain college acceptance; the Dunbar High
School administrators consider it a model for their own tutoring endeavors. The newly expanded base of over 100 volunteers from Johns Hopkins University provides strong leadership for the next year, leading IMP closer to the realization of Sarah’s dream of sustainability.