The NASW Education Committee put on two of its most important yearly projects at the AAAS meeting in San Francisco Feb. 16 to 18. The mentorship program and internship fair both enjoyed one of their most successful years ever.
The mentorship program matched 38 young and aspiring science writers with experienced journalists, freelancers and PIOs attending the meeting. This was by far the largest participation we have had. One reason for the large turnout of students was a generous travel stipend program sponsored by AAAS that allowed 10 of the most promising young writers to attend the meeting for free.
The mentors and mentees met Friday afternoon, where they introduced themselves and got acquainted. They also heard a short talk by Mike Lemonick, who on his last day as a science writer at Time, told the young writers a bit about the life of a science writer. From there the mentors and mentees made their own plans for the weekend, offering the mentees the opportunity to soak up some of the experience of their mentors.
On Saturday, many of the same students attended the NASW Internship Fair. We had 49 student participants this year and a total of 15 recruiters representing 16 employers. We had a few new publications at the fair this year including Nature, Nature Medicine, New Scientist, Chemical and Engineering News and Conservation magazine, as well as several new organizations (National Superconducting Cyclotron Lab at MSU, the JHU Genetics and Public Policy Center, and the Science Editor). Repeat performers included Smithsonian, Discover, Science News, Science, and Natural History, as well as FermiLab, Argonne and SLAC. Most recruiters met with 25 students over the course of the afternoon. We had a "speed-dating" format in which students and recruiters met for five minutes and then students moved on to the next possible employer.
We received a lot of good feedback from students, mentors and recruiters during and after the meeting. As we do every year, we learned some things that will help us improve the programs next year. And we received much appreciation from the students who benefited from the mentorship and internship programs. I know most are very grateful to NASW for offering them these opportunities to develop their science writing careers.
Many NASW members helped make these projects a success. First of all, the 38 mentors who volunteered their time during the meeting. This is the most mentors we have ever had, and obviously the program couldn't go on without them.
Jenny Cutraro did an excellent job in her first year running the internship fair. She was responsible for all the hard work before the meeting, including attracting the recruiters, and then making sure the whole day ran smoothly. She received a lot of help from Terry Devitt, who ran the internship fair for several previous years.
My co-chair on the education committee, John Travis, also played a key role in the success of the mentorship program and internship fair. He and his AAAS colleagues were solely responsible for organizing the travel stipend program, including selecting the winners and arranging for their travel and hotel. This meeting was the last for John as co-chair, as he has recently moved to England to become European news editor for Science. While we will miss John, he helped identify a worthy replacement as co-chair: Rob Irion, program director of the science writing program at UC Santa Cruz. Although he doesn't officially start until this fall, Rob generously helped us with the mentorship program and internship fair this year.
Now, on to 2008 and Boston!
Jeff Grabmeier Co-chair, NASW Education Committee
