This picture of Randy and I, along with the following excerpt, appeared in VOL. 277, Page 581, July 25, 1997 issue of Science Magazine. It was taken at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center during my first internship there. Randy is demonstrating how the post-explosion temperature plot of a cooling substance will behave, (the shock wave propagates faster than the temperature decreases).

Drawing out abilities. Randall Smith mentors Chris Mouser to take her from intern to colleague. Photo by S. L. Byrand

Maximizing Potential
When asked what advice they would give scientists who are mentoring or working with people with disabilities, the students participating in ACCESS and Entry Point revealed some common themes: focus on abilities, not limitations; treat everyone as an individual; be patient; establish open and honest lines of communication; be creative and use technology to your advantage.

Christine Mouser, who has dyslexia and is majoring in mathematics at Saint Xavier University, summed up how Randall Smith, a physicist, has been successful in mentoring her: "He has encouraged me to advance my skills to another level and to learn a new computer language. He is there to redirect me if I have gone off on a tangent and to answer my questions. He has constructed a means by which I have been able to use my educational talents to the best of my abilities."

Smith, who began at NASA in another internship program, opted to be a mentor to return the favor and out of recognition that "mentoring is vitally important to learning how science is done." Still he admits he had some doubts, "My biggest fear was I'd get somebody that I had to constantly work with in order to do anything useful. Instead, Chris is quite independent, which is a great boon to me." On her first day, Smith asked her to write a complicated program. "I was pleasantly surprised," said Smith, when Chris turned in one 4 hours later that met his exact needs.

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