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Motivating Undergraduates in Science and Technology (MUST) 2012 Orientation and 21st Century Leadership Symposium Evaluation Report

Authors Jay Feldman

Nicole Ifill Alexandria Walton Radford

Beverly Farr

MPR Associates, Inc. 2150 Shattuck Avenue, Suite 800

Berkeley, CA 94704 510-849-4942

September 2012

Prepared under contract to Hispanic College Fund

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Content

Introduction .................................................................................................... 1

Goals of the MUST Symposium ........................................................................ 2

Method ........................................................................................................... 3

Results ............................................................................................................ 5 Scholars’ Assessment of the Speakers and Workshops ........................................................... 5 Scholars’ Opinions of the Social Activities .......................................................................... 11 MUST Symposium Goals .................................................................................................. 12 Scholar Recommendations ................................................................................................. 15 Scholars’ Perspectives on What They Learned .................................................................... 16

Summary....................................................................................................... 18

Recommendations ........................................................................................ 19 Symposium Content .......................................................................................................... 19 Symposium Structure ......................................................................................................... 20

Appendix A: Individual Workshop Evaluation Instrument .............................. 21

Appendix B: Workshop Conference Survey .................................................... 23

Appendix C: Symposium Observation Protocol .............................................. 29

Appendix D: Symposium Schedule ................................................................. 31

Appendix E: Biographies of the Presenters ..................................................... 35

Appendix F: Description of the Workshops .................................................... 45

Appendix G: MPR Observation Notes and Description of Presentations ......... 51

Appendix H: Jenkins Fellows Results .............................................................. 65

MOTIVATING UNDERGRADUATES IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (MUST) 1 2012 ORIENTATION AND 21ST CENTURY LEADERSHIP SYMPOSIUM EVALUATION REPORT

Introduction

The 2012 Motivating Undergraduates in Science and Technology (MUST) Orientation and 21st Century Leadership Symposium was a four-day event that offered MUST project partic-ipants the opportunity to strengthen their skills and prepare themselves for the competitive climate of the 21st century. The event was hosted by the Hispanic College Fund (HCF), which administers MUST. It consisted of lectures, workshops, presentations, discussions, and social experiences relevant to the professional development of its participants. Students heard from inspirational speakers, attended specialized workshops, and received guidance in developing a variety of skills for the 21st century workforce. The 2012 Symposium took place July 19–22 in Orlando, Florida, and was conducted in collaboration with the NASA Harriet G. Jenkins Predoctoral Fellowship Symposium. The evaluation was conducted by MPR Associates, Inc. (MPR) of Washington, DC.

The MUST Symposium was designed to:

• Create a networking opportunity among MUST Scholars, NASA representa-tives, 21st century skill set trainers, and MUST staff.

• Provide opportunities for interaction between NASA Field Center representa-tives and MUST Scholars.

• Offer an orientation that outlines MUST expectations, requirements, and schol-ar responsibilities, including the MUST Professional and Academic Support System (PASS), involvement in professional organizations, community out-reach, and the NASA internship.


Goals of the MUST Symposium

MUST project staff identified four main goals of the Symposium for MUST Scholars:

1. Give students the opportunity to enhance their academic and professional sup-port network with fellow scholars and NASA MUST staff.

2. Inspire students to excel academically and to develop a broad skill set while pur-suing their undergraduate degrees.

3. Facilitate the development of new skills and confidence that will prepare MUST Scholars for the global workforce.

4. Provide MUST Scholars with information about opportunities to pursue gradu-ate school, employment at NASA, and the STEM industry.


Method

This report is based upon the following data:

• Individual workshop evaluations (Appendix A),

• End of conference survey (Appendix B),

• Conference observations and field notes on workshops and speakers, and

• Informal feedback from scholars collected through participant intercepts.

Participants were asked to complete a short survey providing feedback on their experience af-ter each of the seven workshops presented on the second and third days of the Symposium. They also completed a survey at the end of the conference, which sought their overall feed-back on the speakers, presenters, and networking events as well as the degree to which the Symposium had inspired them and contributed to their development.

MPR also conducted conference observations and participant intercepts. MPR observed eve-ry activity except for two off-site social activities during the Symposium, compiling extensive field notes based upon an observation protocol (Appendix C). The protocol asked observers to note event title, presenter(s), time, and a description highlighting the main goals or con-cepts discussed. During the Symposium, observers also engaged in “participant intercepts” —short interviews with attendees to get informal, real-time feedback. Appendix D provides the Symposium schedule, Appendix E provides speaker biographies, and Appendix F con-tains workshop descriptions. Appendix G contains a narrative description of Symposium events.

This Symposium was conducted in collaboration with the NASA Harriet G. Jenkins Predoctoral Fellowship Symposium. Jenkins Fellows attended some conference sessions con-currently with MUST Scholars and at other times were involved in specific activities at their own specialized conference. Evaluation forms were also collected from these participating scholars, but their results are shown separately in Appendix H. The body of this report just provides feedback from MUST Scholars.

Seventy MUST Scholars attended the event. Table 1 shows the breakdown of participants by number of years in the program. Unlike previous years, the 2012 MUST Symposium was only attended by previous scholars, as no new scholars were accepted into the program for the 2012–13 program year. This is a big change from 2011, in which 40 percent of all schol-ars were first-year scholars attending their first Symposium.


Table 1: Number of participants, by year in program

Unknown 2 years 3 years 4 or more

years Total

MUST Scholar 7 35 18 10 70

About 50 percent of participants were second-year scholars, 26 percent third-year scholars, 14 percent fourth- or fifth-year scholars, and 10 percent did not indicate their year in the program. Table 2 shows the number and percentage of surveys collected by event. In general, the response rate was high. MUST Scholars attended all workshops and presentations together.

Table 2: Number and percentage of surveys collected, by event

Workshop/survey type

MUST Scholars number

collected

MUST Scholars percent

collected

End of Conference Summative Survey 64 91%

Individual Session Feedback Forms

Career Planning: Kiip Getting Lucky 56 80%

Career Pathways Panel 64 91%

Fearless Presentations 58 83%

Moving from the Classroom to the Conference Room 60 86%

Influencing Others and Building Consensus 57 81%

Job Offer Negotiation Strategies for STEM Careers 56 80%

Mentorship and Goal Setting 64 91%


Results

Scholars’ Assessment of the Speakers and Workshops During the Symposium, participants listened to four speakers and attended seven workshops. This section provides feedback on their experiences.

Speakers

MUST Scholars attended four speaker sessions, including a Thursday night opening session with NASA and MUST staff, a closing session led by HCF and NASA staff, and sessions led by Simon Bailey, of the Brilliance Institute, and Heather Fleming, of Catapult Design. As seen in Figure 1, participants found the Symposium speakers interesting. At least 88 percent of all respondents agreed or strongly agreed that each speaker session was interesting (Figure 1). Fleming was particularly well received, with 62 percent of participants strongly agreeing that she was interesting.1

1 While these results are quite high, note that in the 2011 Symposium, two speakers (Dr. Hrabowski and Dr. Berry) had a strongly agreed rating of over 80 percent.

These presentations covered very relevant information to the career path I want to follow. They were also very good presentations and the information given was very useful.

—5th-year scholar


Figure 1: Percentage of participants agreeing that the speakers were interesting

Workshops

To evaluate the quality and effectiveness of the workshops, MPR used both quantita-tive and qualitative data. First, we present quantitative data from the feedback forms completed immediately after each work-shop. Second, we provide a list of the ses-sions rated most and least useful in the end-of-conference survey. We then provide qualitative results based on scholars’ open-ended responses in both the workshop feedback forms and the end-of-conference survey, complemented with observation da-ta. These data provide an overview of what was useful and less satisfying about each session.

The workshop feedback forms asked three questions: Was the workshop useful? Was it in-spiring? Was it well done? We first examined how individual workshops were rated on each question, but because there was little variation in answers, we do not present the results for each question independently. Instead, we calculated an overall rating for each workshop by aggregating answers to each of these three questions. Figure 2 shows the overall rating of each workshop based upon the workshop feedback forms. As seen in Figure 2, there was variabil-

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Closing

Fleming

Bailey

Thursday Dinner

Overall

Percent

Strongly disagree Disagree Agree Strongly agree

The sessions contained information that I have not yet heard in all my years as a MUST scholar. Brian Wong was inspirational and was very “real” in his presentation; he was honest and blunt. David Jensen’s negotiating tactics were witty and useful. His negotiation exercises were helpful and re-enforced his words with a practical application.

—5th-year scholar


ity in how workshops were received by participants. Over 95 percent of all respondents strongly agreed or agreed that three of the seven workshops (Career Planning, Influencing Others and Building Consensus, and Job Offer Negotiation Strategies) were useful, inspiring, and well done, and two more workshops had ratings of over 80 percent. However, two work-shops were rated very low: only 52 percent of respondents strongly agreed or agreed that the Mentorship and Goal Setting workshop and 67 percent that the Business Etiquette workshop were useful, inspiring, and well done. Both of these workshops were rated lower than any workshop from the 2011 Symposium as well (the lowest rating in 2011 was 69 percent).

Figure 2: Percentage of scholars agreeing that workshops were useful, inspiring, and well done

While the above results are based on scholars’ immediate feedback, we also asked participants at the end of the conference to rank their top two most useful and least useful workshops. As shown in Table 3, we see the same distinction between workshops as described above. Career Planning and Job Offer Negotiation Strategies were ranked as the top two most useful work-shops by 61 percent and 53 percent of respondents. The Mentorship and Goal Setting and Business Etiquette workshops were rated as the top two least useful workshops by 73 percent and 59 percent of respondents. This is consistent with the workshop feedback ratings, in which those two workshops were rated the lowest.

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2 0

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38

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38

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18

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13

31

48

71

77

81

0 20 40 60 80 100

Mentorship and Goal Setting

Business Etiquette

Career Pathways Panel

Fearless Presentations

Job Offer Negotiation Strategies

Career Planning

Influencing Others

Percent



Table 3: Percentage of scholars ranking each workshop as most and least useful

Rank

Session name Session presenter Day

Two MOST useful

sessions

Two LEAST useful

sessions

61% 8% Career Planning Wong Friday

53% 5% Job Offer Negotiation Strategies Jensen Sunday

33% 5% Influencing Others Sprinkles Sunday

19% 13% Fearless Presentations Patnaude Saturday

16% 31% Career Pathways Panel Dr. Greene, Moderator Friday

6% 73% Mentorship and Goal Setting Bautista Sunday

3% 59% Business Etiquette Klinkenberg Sunday

Table 4 compiles written feedback from participants about what they liked and did not like about each session. As would be expected, more highly rated workshops received more posi-tive comments.

Table 4: Strengths and challenges of each session

Session name Strengths Challenges

Career Planning • Funny, energetic, inspiring, practical • Relevant to have young entrepreneur • Nice to have someone our age • Bring back next year


• Valuable skills presented through examples

• Great advice and handout • A lot of information I did not know about

Influencing Others

• Fantastic, inspiring • A great reminder of who we are and how

we should perceive others


• Thorough, engaging, and well presented • The analogy to remember steps to giving a

good presentation

• Information too basic • Not a good talk for dinner. Too much

participation involved while eating.


• Too geared toward engineering rather than science

• Knew much of what panelists said • Content not applicable to graduate

students

Mentorship and Goal Setting

• Too long and uninteresting • Very inappropriate and

uncomfortable examples

Business Etiquette

• Content useful, but basic • Not motivating • Not any new information • Would have liked a more advanced

session


Another way to examine the impact of the presentations is to ask participants what quote from the presentations most resonated with them. Quotes from Jonathan Sprinkles (25 scholars) and Simon Bailey (12 scholars) were mentioned the most. Quotes from Wong, Fleming, and Poeletta were also mentioned (by 4, 2, and 2 scholars, respectively). The three quotes that most resonated with the scholars were all by Sprinkles. “You teach people how to treat you,” “What you blame has power over you,” and “Begin with the end in mind” were the most cited quotes (by 7, 5, and 4 scholars, respectively).

MUST Challenge Presentations

The NASA MUST Challenge Tech Talk was a new feature added to the Symposium for 2012. The Talk represents the work of project teams that consist of eight to nine NASA MUST Scholars who work together during the summer towards developing a 5-minute presentation and a two-page handout summarizing their presentation (to be distrib-uted to MUST Scholars). The goal of the Challenge is to deliver an enlightening presentation addressing and/or solving an issue that is affecting NASA and the broader STEM industry. MUST Scholars were required to work cohesively with their teammates while improving and developing their leadership and communication skills—each of which are vital upon entrance into the STEM workforce.

Sixty-two of 63 respondents (98 percent) reported that they participated in the NASA MUST Challenge. As shown in Table 5, scholars generally agreed that the presentations were useful (81 percent). Scholars were also asked to rate the most useful presentations. Table 6 lists the top five presentations rated as the most useful, though all presentations received at least three votes.

Table 5: Scholar ratings of MUST Challenge Tech Talks

Strongly disagree Disagree Agree

Strongly agree

I found the Sunday morning MUST Challenge presentations to be useful 2% 17% 59% 22%

I enjoyed the MUST challenge. I don’t often present and this was a good opportunity to practice public speaking.

—3rd-year scholar


Table 6: Most useful Challenge presentations based on scholar ratings

Workshop title Responses

“A Whole New Mind:” Designing the Future of NASA 10

How Private Companies are Making Space Cool Again 9

Why so Few? Underrepresented Minorities and Women in STEM 9

Utilizing Social Media and the Web to Promote STEM Learning 7

Applying NASA’s Technology for Sustainable Energy Resources 6

Scholars were more mixed on whether their participation in the NASA MUST Challenge impacted them (Table 7). Approximately 52 percent felt that their participation enhanced their support network throughout the year, but only 34 percent felt that their participation inspired them to excel academically.

In their open-ended responses, MUST Scholars were most likely to report that networking (26 responses) and teamwork and collaboration (11 responses) were the most useful aspects of the MUST Challenge. Scholars liked that they met others from across centers and sites, and they appreciated coming together to convey a single message. A few scholars also found learning about different tools, particularly for virtual collaboration, to be useful (5 respons-es), as well as learning new ideas (2 responses).

Scholars suggested a number of ideas to improve the Challenge. They wanted to know about the Challenge earlier in the year and also wanted more clarity on the requirements (two stu-dents thought that the requirement of handouts was added late, though in fact it is in the original instructions for the Challenge). Ten scholars wanted more time to present their work, six scholars reported wanting more topics to choose from and thought the current year’s topics were too similar, and three wanted fewer students in each group. Seven scholars noted that collaborating across centers was difficult or suggested having only students from the same center work together. Two scholars thought the work they put in outweighed the benefits. Another scholar suggested doing a shorter, focused challenge, such as a 24-hour en-gineering challenge.

Table 7: Scholar ratings of impact of participation in NASA MUST Challenge

Workshop title Not much A little A lot A great deal

Inspired you to excel academically? 38% 29% 29% 5%

Enhanced your support network of fellow scholars who will support you throughout the year? 11% 37% 34% 18%


Scholars’ Opinions of the Social Activities Participants believed that there was a good balance between formal presentations and social activities (Table 8). However, this belief was not as strongly held in 2012 as it was in 2011 (87 percent vs. 98 percent).

Table 8: Scholar ratings of Symposium activity balance


Strongly agree

There was a good balance of social activities and more formal presentations to help me develop my professional skills and to meet other MUST scholars. 0% 13% 36% 51%

Participants also noted that the social activities were fairly useful in helping them network and meet other scholars. As seen in Figure 3, the visit to the Kennedy Space Center was rated as the most useful social activity. The CityWalk was a substitute event because the trip to Epcot Center had to be cancelled. Students expressed disappointment that they were not in-formed of the cancellation of the Epcot trip until the last minute and had little say in the choice of the substitute activity.

Figure 3: Percentage of scholars rating social activities as helpful in making new connections or deepening their connections with other MUST Scholars

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31

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33

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13

0 20 40 60 80 100

OSM CityWalk

Kennedy Space Center

Thursday evening networking

Percent

Not much A little A lot A great deal


MUST Symposium Goals This section presents information on how effective the Symposium was in meeting its four student outcome goals.

Goal 1: Students leave the event inspired to excel academically and have a plan to develop a broad skill set while undergraduates.

Over 70 percent of scholars agreed or strongly agreed that the MUST Symposium inspired them both to excel academically and to plan to develop their skill sets (Table 9), which was lower than the results reported for the 2011 Symposium (over 90 percent). In addition, as reported previously, over 80 percent of respondents strongly agreed or agreed that five of the seven workshops were inspirational and useful (Figure 2). Further, over 88 percent of scholars agreed or strongly agreed that all four speakers were interesting (Figure 1).

Table 9: Scholar ratings on how the Symposium inspired them

To what extent did you feel that the conference: Not much A little A lot A great

deal

Inspired you to excel academically? 5% 25% 38% 32%

Inspired you to have a plan to develop a broad skill set while an undergraduate student? 2% 14% 35% 49%

Goal 2: Students have an enhanced support network of MUST staff and fellow scholars who will support them throughout the year.

Approximately 84 percent of scholars agreed or strongly agreed that the MUST Symposium enhanced their support net-work for the year (Table 10), a similar fig-ure to last year’s Symposium (81 percent in 2011 but with a higher percentage of scholars who responded strongly agree). Networking was also mentioned by a small number of scholars as being the most useful ac-tivity for them in the next academic year or the type of support they value the most. Participants thought the Symposium provided the right balance between formal presenta-

I felt I wasn’t worthy of this scholarship/internship at times. At my first symposium I felt like I didn’t belong. But that changed this year.

—2nd-year scholar

I always come away from symposium really encouraged and inspired. I was reminded that my passion for my field is what is driving me and just how important that is.

—3rd-year scholar


tions and social activities (Table 7). Finally, scholars believed that the social events at the Symposium helped them a lot or a great deal in networking at the Symposium.

Table 10: Scholar understanding of MUST support system

To what extent did you feel that the conference: Not much A little A lot A great

deal

Enhanced your support network of MUST staff and fellow scholars who will support you throughout the year?

0% 16% 43% 41%

Goal 3: Students have new skills and confidence, preparing them for life after college.

Similar to the 2011 Symposium, almost all respondents felt that the 2012 Symposium gave them new skills and confidence and helped prepare them for life after college (Table 11). As seen in Figure 4, scholars also believed that the conference contrib-uted to their cultural competency, their capacity for leadership, and their under-standing of how to adapt and work with others. Scholars were less likely, however, to indicate that the Symposium successfully con-tributed to the development of their résumé building skills, which was the highest rated skill in 2011. In 2011, the Symposium offered a workshop specifically on résumé building. It seems likely that because so many scholars had attended the 2011 Symposium and developed their résumé building skills that the 2012 Symposium did not provide much added value for developing this skill.

Table 11: Scholar ratings on their development of new skills and preparation for life after college

This conference helped me to develop… Strongly disagree Disagree Agree

Strongly agree

New skills and confidence 2% 6% 54% 38%

Preparation for life after college 2% 13% 40% 46%

The symposiums are always inspiring. What is always done well is fostering a sense of community in the growing scientific universe; the community feel prepares me for entry into the universe.

—2nd-year scholar


Figure 4: Percentage of scholars agreeing that they developed the following skills during the Symposium

Goal 4: Students have new knowledge about opportunities for graduate school and employment at NASA and within the STEM fields.

Approximately two-thirds of scholars (67 percent) agreed or strongly agreed that the goal of having new knowledge to pursue graduate school was met, compared with 90 percent in 2011 (Table 12). (The 2011 Symposium offered specific workshops for graduate school, in-cluding a student presentation on graduate school that was the most highly rated among student presentations, and a session on graduate school led by Michele Lezama that was also rated highly.)

Just over half of the scholars agreed or strongly agreed that the goal of having new knowledge about NASA was met (Table 12), compared with over 80 percent who thought so in 2011. Of course, all scholars in 2012 had attended previous Symposiums and had NASA intern-ships, so one would expect this figure to be lower. Examining the responses by scholars in 2012, those scholars who had attended fewer Symposiums were more likely to agree or strongly agree that the goal of having new knowledge was met (Table 13).

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0 20 40 60 80 100

My résumé building skills

My communication skills

My ability to innovate

My understanding of how to network

My capacity for entrepreneuralism

My ability to work with others

My ability to adapt

My capacity for leadership

My cultural competency

Percent



Eighty percent of scholars (versus just under 90 percent in 2011) agreed or strongly agreed that the goal of having new knowledge about employment opportunities within STEM fields was met (Table 12).

Table 12: Percentage of scholars agreeing that the Symposium helped them to learn new knowledge about opportunities to pursue graduate school and employment at NASA and within the STEM fields


Strongly agree

New knowledge about opportunities to pursue graduate school 5% 29% 38% 29%

New knowledge about internship opportunities at the 10 NASA centers 5% 43% 30% 22%

New knowledge about opportunities to pursue employment within the STEM fields 3% 17% 48% 32%

Table 13: Percentage of scholars agreeing that the Symposium helped them to learn new knowledge about internship opportunities at the NASA centers by previous Symposiums attended

Number of Symposiums attended N Strongly disagree Disagree Agree

Strongly agree

First Symposium 7 0% 29% 71% 0%

Two Symposiums 28 4% 36% 32% 29%

Three or more Symposiums 27 7% 52% 19% 22%

Scholar Recommendations

Speakers and Content

Twenty-five scholars made suggestions to improve Symposium content. In general, scholars wanted more workshops and a longer Symposium. The 2012 Symposium was shorter than the 2011 Symposium by one day and had two fewer workshops and no presentations by recent MUST Alumni. Perhaps because of this shortened time, and possibly due to the unevenness of the presenters, scholars made a number of recommendations for additional speakers. Scholars suggested having younger speakers, including bringing back recent graduates, and having more speakers who addressed science, rather than just engineering (the opposite suggestion from their feedback on the 2011 Symposium). They also wanted more content to focus on graduate school rather than just careers, and they wanted fewer inspirational talks and more practical in-formation. They also wanted to see more of the NASA Centers.


Eight scholars wanted more networking, while one scholar wanted less. Suggestions for net-working changes included having an activity, such as a scavenger hunt, to help scholars meet one another, having networking within subject areas, engaging in “speed networking,” and having people from NASA present their research. Six scholars also noted that they were dis-appointed with the cancellation of the Ep-cot trip and wanted a stronger back-up plan.

Symposium Structure

Scholars felt the balance between scheduled activities and presentations and down time was better than in 2011. Four scholars did ask for more free time to help them relax and also to meet with each other in more casual situations, and three scholars asked for more breaks between sessions.

Scholars’ Perspectives on What They Learned

Professional preparation

Scholars were asked what the Symposium did best in preparing them for their professional goals, and their responses included (1) improving their job offer negotiation skills; (2) providing inspiration, motivation, and confidence; (3) providing them with support and ide-as about postsecondary options; (4) improving their networking skills and increasing their contacts; and (5) increasing their public speaking skills.

Sixteen scholars noted that learning about job offer negotiation was their most useful profes-sional learning at the conference. Scholars really appreciated learning these skills, noting that now they know how to negotiate an offer and not to settle for less.

Thirteen scholars wrote about being inspired, motivated, or having their confidence in them-selves increased. They felt motivated to take the next step and continue to pursue their goals.

Eleven scholars wrote about how the conference helped them to think more deeply about their postsecondary plans, including helping them understand life in a professional world, learning about different STEM jobs, graduate school, and learning how to pursue both grad-uate school and workforce options.

Ten scholars cited the opportunity to network as the most useful professional preparation event, with one scholar noting they built a network of “brilliant people I can keep in touch

I’m very focused on applying to graduate school right now, but the symposium helped me keep things in perspective and remember that I need to be thinking about entering the workforce beyond grad school also.

—3rd-year scholar


with.” Finally, three scholars wrote about developing presentation and public speaking skills. Scholars referred specifically to the presentation workshop and the MUST Challenge as ave-nues through which they developed these skills.

Learning about themselves

When asked what they had learned about themselves from the week, scholars’ comments fo-cused on (1) their confidence that they were in charge of their future, (2) the skills they need to work on, and (3) their desire to be leaders. A few also noted their support network, prob-lem-solving skills, and passion.

As one scholar wrote, “Just because someone hasn’t done it before doesn’t mean it can’t be done first.” Scholars reported feeling more confident in themselves and their abilities, more able to bounce back from disappointments, more secure in the choices they have made (such as being a science major), and more sure about the skills needed to reach their goals (such as developing interviewing skills). Another scholar wrote that he learned “To quit making ex-cuses and get active in shaping who I want to be.” Similar to last year, scholars’ confidence in their future was based on their perceived ability—if they worked hard, they believed they would have the skills to take advantage of the opportunities ahead of them.

Eleven scholars noted areas that they need to develop. This included improving their presen-tation skills (3 scholars), networking skills (2 scholars), their experiments, their motivation, and their comfort in talking about themselves. Two noted that they realized what they need to work on but did not provide specifics.

Four scholars noted that they developed leadership skills and that leadership comes with re-sponsibility. Three of these scholars specifically wrote about wanting to mentor and support others, to encourage others to pursue their dreams, and to “make a positive impact on the world working with other STEM students.”

Two scholars wrote about developing a support network, two about developing problem-solving skills, and one scholar wrote about rediscovering his/her passion.


Summary

The goal of the Motivating Undergraduates in Science and Technology (MUST) Orienta-tion and 21st Century Leadership Symposium is to offer MUST project participants the opportunity to strengthen and prepare themselves for the competitive climate of the 21st century. Scholars are expected to become inspired, develop their skill sets, become more con-fident in their preparation for life after college, enhance their support network for the upcoming school year, and gain new knowledge about STEM opportunities after graduation.

Scholars’ responses to surveys and in interviews conducted during the Symposium indicate that the 2012 MUST Symposium accomplished its goals. Scholars rated speakers and work-shops very highly, with two exceptions. They reported feeling inspired, gaining confidence, developing a variety of skills, and feeling better prepared for their postsecondary future.


Recommendations

Although the scholars gave high marks to Symposium events, we identified two main areas in which the Symposium could improve both in its content and structure.

Symposium Content The 2012 Symposium was unique in that only returning MUST Scholars attended and all but seven of these scholars had attended at least one previous Symposium. In the 2011 eval-uation report, we discussed the need to differentiate content to ensure that returning students were challenged and that content was not repetitive from the previous year. The Job Offer Negotiation Strategies workshop is an example of additional content that extended scholars’ skill sets, presenting them with new information and ideas. This workshop was one of the most highly rated; in open-ended responses on the end-of-survey evaluation, almost 25 percent of scholars noted that learning about job offer negotiation was their most useful professional learning at the conference. This workshop appears to be intended for returning and/or older scholars and fits with other sessions such as résumé building and interviewing skills that have been offered in the past.

The highest rated workshops and speakers by MUST Scholars seemed to include content that was appropriate for their level, some level of interactivity, hands-on activity or participa-tion by the audience, and presentations of practical information (for example, see the job negotiation activity in the current workshop or the card activity from the Adaptability work-shop in 2011). Additionally, in both the 2011 and 2012 Symposiums, scholars appreciated that some speakers were closer to their age (as they found it easier to relate to those speakers and found them to be inspiring). Scholars rated Fearless Presentations and Business Etiquette at lower levels, noting that those workshops were too basic, repetitive, or did not contain any new information.

Additionally, the panel discussion in 2011 as well as the Career Pathways Panel during the most recent Symposium have both been one of the lower-rated sessions each year. In both panels, MUST Scholars felt the panelists spoke too long and that there was not enough time for questions. We suggest increasing student participation, through having students submit questions in advance or leaving more time for questions, perhaps by decreasing the amount of time that panelists introduce themselves. In addition, HCF might want to use a different structure for the panel, such as a kiva. A kiva involves panelists sitting in a circle with partici-pants surrounding them, which encourages a more conversational tone among panelists. Two chairs are left empty in the circle, and audience members with questions come to sit in


the circle to ask their questions. This structure is designed to encourage participation, con-versation, and intimacy, even with large numbers of people.

Suggestions from scholars this year also asked for more balance in information presented. For example, scholars wanted more speakers who addressed science, rather than just engineering. This is the opposite suggestion from their feedback on the 2011 Symposium, indicating that the balance of views is most important. Scholars also wanted fewer inspirational talks and more practical information. Further, they also wanted more content to focus on graduate school, rather than just careers. In 2011, some of the most highly rated workshops included those on graduate school, but this year there were no workshops explicitly for graduate school. Even the names of the days indicated an emphasis on careers: day 2 was titled Un-dergraduate Success and day 3 was titled Workforce Development.

Scholars did not make any specific requests this year, though in 2011 they requested finan-cial information, more information on NASA (as discussed earlier, scholars who had attended previous Symposiums felt that they did not learn much about NASA this year), and learning the landscape on conferences, grants, publishing articles, and/or project proposals.

Finally, while most scholars rated the closing session as useful, many scholars completed their evaluation forms before the end of that session. MPR noted that the closing session was very long, as it included awards and presentations for both groups.

Symposium Structure

Balancing workshops, social activities, and down time

In 2011, scholars reported that the schedule was filled with workshops, presentations, and other activities from morning until late evening. Scholars made a number of suggestions, each of which was implemented in the 2012 Symposium. In fact, only seven scholars made suggestions to improve the structure this year. Further, 83 percent of scholars agreed that the Symposium addressed their concerns from the previous year.

The main changes from the 2011 Symposium included longer breaks between workshops, which gave scholars a chance to rest or go back to their room and alleviated rushing when one speaker went over time. There was also more integration of workshops and activities during the day, and the program integrated more “get-to-know-you” activities earlier in the conference, rather than mostly at the end, so scholars could feel more connected with others from the start of the Symposium. We recommend that the Symposium continue with the structural changes implemented for 2012.


Appendix A: Individual Workshop Evaluation Instrument

Workshop Evaluation Survey

What is your role: MUST Scholar: 1st year _______ 2nd year _______ 3rd year ________ Symposium Speaker _______ NASA Center Representative _________ MUST Staff_____ Guest _______ Other (please define): ___________________________ Please rate your agreement with the following statements: 1. This workshop gave me skills or knowledge that I can use in my future.


Comments: 2. I felt inspired by this workshop.


Comments: 3. The speaker’s presentation was well organized and easy to follow.


Comments: 4. Please share any other thoughts you would like to about this workshop.


Appendix B: Workshop Conference Survey

TThhee MMUUSSTT YYoouutthh SSyymmppoossiiuumm SSuurrvveeyy,, JJuullyy 1199––2222 What is your role?

JPFP Fellow ___ MUST Scholar 2nd year ____ MUST Scholar 3rd year ____ Other: _________________ Including this year, how many MUST Leadership Symposiums have you attended? ________ Speakers and Keynotes

1. Please rate how much you agree with the following statements:

The following speaker was interesting to me: Strongly disagree Disagree Agree

Strongly agree

Thursday’s dinner speakers Thursday’s opening session with Simon Bailey Saturday’s lunch with Heather Fleming The closing ceremony with NASA and HCF staff

Workshop Questions

2. Which sessions were the most or least useful to you? Please mark an X to note your top two choices in each of the “Rank” columns.

RANK

Session name Session presenter Day Two MOST useful sessions

Two LEAST useful sessions

Career Planning: Kiip Get-ting Lucky

Brian Wong Friday

Career Pathways Panel Panelists: Lana Fountain Flakes from the Society of Women Engi-neers, Josephine Pereira from NASA Human Resources, James Goonan from Embry Riddle Graduate Ad-missions, and Michael Robinson from The Boeing Company.

Friday

Fearless Presentations Ellen E. Patnaude Friday Moving from the Classroom

to the Conference Room Hilka Klinkenberg Saturday

Influencing Others and Building Consensus

Jonathan Sprinkles Saturday


RANK

Session name Session presenter Day Two MOST useful sessions

Two LEAST useful sessions

Job Offer Negotiation Strate-gies for STEM Careers

David Jensen Saturday

Mentorship and Goal Setting Alex Bautista Saturday

3. Why did you choose the sessions you indicated were most useful? Tell us 1–2 reasons why you thought each session was useful.


4. Why did you choose the sessions you indicated were least useful? Tell us 1–2 reasons why each session was not useful.

Social Activities

5. To what extent did the following activities help you make new connections or deepen your con-nections with other MUST Scholars?

Not much A little A lot A great deal Thursday Evening Networking Visit to the Kennedy Space Center Visit to Epcot Center1

Please rate your agreement with the following statement (circle the best choice):

6. There was a good balance of social activities and more formal presentations to help me meet oth-er MUST Scholars and develop my professional skills.


First Annual NASA MUST Challenge: Tech Talk

7. Please rate your agreement with the following statement (circle the best choice):

I found the Sunday morning MUST Challenge presentations to be useful.


8. Which of these MUST Challenge presentations, if any, were most useful, and why? Please list up to two presentations.

Please rate your agreement with the following statements about the MUST Challenge (circle the best choice):

9. I participated on a MUST Challenge team. Yes No

1 Scholars wrote in “CityWalk” as that was the replacement activity for the cancelled trip to Epcot Center.


10. To what extent did you feel that the MUST Challenge:

Not much A little A lot

A great deal

Inspired you to excel academically? Enhanced your support network of fellow scholars who will support you throughout the year?

11. What did you find most useful about working with your team on the MUST Challenge this year?

12. Do you have any suggestions for improving the MUST Challenge?

Final Thoughts

13. To what extent did you feel that the conference:

Not much A little A lot

A great deal

Inspired you to excel academically? Inspired you to have a plan to develop a broad skill set while an undergraduate student?

Enhanced your support network of MUST staff and fel-low scholars who will support you throughout the year?

14. To what extent did you feel that the conference contributed to the development of:


My communication skills My capacity for leadership My ability to work with others My ability to adapt My ability to innovate My capacity for entrepreneurialism My cultural competency My resume building skills My understanding of how to network


15. Please think about your overall experience at the entire conference and rate your agreement with the following:


Strongly agree

New skills and confidence Preparation for life after college New knowledge about opportunities to pursue graduate school

New knowledge about internship opportunities at the 10 NASA centers

New knowledge about opportunities to pursue em-ployment within the STEM industry

16. What did this Symposium do best in preparing you for your professional goals?

17. What changes would you make to the Symposium in the future?

18. What was the most important thing you learned about yourself as a result of your experience this

week?

19. What quote from this year’s Symposium resonates the most with you, and why?


20. If you attended last year, did the changes to this year’s schedule address your concerns from last year? If not, why not?

THANK YOU!


Appendix C: Symposium Observation Protocol

MUST Youth Symposium Event Observation Narrative Form Title of Event/Session: _________________________ Presenters: ___________________________ Number of people in attendance (if available): Beginning ______________ End ______________ Format(s)1 and Time: ________________________________________________________

1. What was the main goal of the event/session? Was this purpose made clear at the begin-ning?

2. Did the event seem to meet its stated goals? If not, what was missing?

3. How would you characterize the balance and quality of audience participation (e.g., en-thusiastic? limited? forced?)?

4. How would you characterize the facilitation of the event? Did the facilitator ensure that the event began and ended on time?

1 Panel, interactive, lecture, large/small-group work, etc.


5. Were there aspects of the event that worked well?

6. Were there aspects of the event that could have been improved?

7. What is your overall impression of the event: was it well-organized? Was it well-considered? Did the audience seem to find it worthwhile?


Appendix D: Symposium Schedule


Appendix E: Biographies of the Presenters

Simon T. Bailey, Founder, Brilliance Institute Simon T. Bailey is a compelling thought catalyst who keenly understands the needs of his audiences and the demands of the new world marketplace. He solidified his position during his leadership tenure at the world-renowned Disney Institute. This is where he discovered his own magic and entrepreneurial spark and launched his own business called the Brilliance In-stitute ten years ago.

Simon is a graduate of the Executive Management Program at Rollins College, one of the top 25 best private graduate business schools in the United States. He holds a Mater’s De-gree from Faith Christian University and was inducted as an honorary member of the University of Central Florida Golden Key International Honor Society. Simon is a Certified Speaking Professional, the highest earned delegation from the National Speakers Association and International Federation of Professional Speakers.

Idalia Fernandez, Operations Officer, Hispanic College Fund Idalia has been a leader at the Hispanic College Fund since 1999 and currently supports op-erations management and program reengineering efforts. The Hispanic College Fund is a national non-profit organization that provides scholarships, college access, and professional development programs to Latino and other minority high school and college students. As the organization’s president, Idalia was a key player in strategic planning, program development, and fundraising. Idalia is also president of Yaya Speaks, LLC, a company she founded to in-spire greatness in women and youth by creating a space for learning and information sharing.

Idalia has been a keynote speaker and panelist for corporate, university, and government-sponsored events including the National Hispanic Leadership Institute, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s Internship Program, Latinas Learning to Lead Annual Confer-ence, Guilford College Soy Un Lider Conference, the Montgomery County Teen Parent Conference, and others.

Idalia is fully bilingual in Spanish and English and honors her Honduran and Cuban herit-age. She gets her inspiration from her mother, who had the vision of the life she wanted, the wisdom to design a plan, and the courage to execute it.


Brian Wong, Founder and CEO, Kiip Brian Wong made his name developing social networking apps for Twitter. He developed a popular app that allows users to identify and follow top people on Twitter by city and interest.

One of the youngest entrepreneurs ever to be funded by a venture capital firm, Brian’s new mission is to bridge the gap between the worlds of gaming and mobile networks. As founder of kiip.me, he is finding new ways to create revenue streams for the gaming industry. Kiip (pronounced “keep”) has raised over $4.4 million in funding to date and is redefining the advertising industry through a moments-based model, versus the traditional attention-based screen estate model. Kiip was listed by Forbes as one of the “4 Hot Online Ad Companies to Put on Your Watch List,” and was also named to the Dow Jones’ Fastech50 List.

Brian is one of the 30 under 30 on the Social/Mobile list from Forbes. He is also the recipi-ent of the “Top 20 Under 20” award for all of Canada. He was recently lauded in Mashable as one of “The Top 5 Young Entrepreneurs to Watch,” AdAge’s Creativity Top 50, and Business Insider’s Top 25 Under 25 in Silicon Valley list.

Dr. Sonya L. Greene, Ph.D., Director of Workforce Development, UNCF Special Programs Corporation Dr. Sonya L. Greene currently serves as the Director of Workforce Development at the UNCF Special Programs Corporation (UNCFSP) in Falls Church, VA. In this capacity she is responsible for the management and oversight of a portfolio of federally funded education-al programs designed to prepare the underrepresented and underserved minority education community to be value-added contributions in today’s rapidly changing global marketplace.

Prior to joining the UNSCEP staff, Dr. Greene served as a Fellowship in Research and Sci-ence Teaching (FIRST) Postdoctoral Fellow and a Howard Hughes Curriculum Development Fellow at Emory University School of Medicine and Morehouse College. The FIRST program, which places a strong emphasis on both research and science education, has provided the foundation for Dr. Greene’s interest in developing, implementing, and cultivat-ing quality science education programs for students and faculty. Working with students to help bridge the gap from research lab to the classroom through innovative programs, curricu-lum design, and methodologies has become one of her passions. These valuable experiences allow her to bring a unique and innovative perspective to research and science education programming that ultimately prepare students for entry into our nation’s STEM workforce.

A native of Florence, South Carolina, Dr. Greene holds a bachelor’s degree in Biology from Morgan State University, and a Ph.D. degree in Immunology and Microbiology from Wayne State University School of Medicine.


Lana Fountain Flakes, Director of Emerging Initiatives, Society of Women Engineers Lana Fountain Flakes, a native of Moss Point, Mississippi, is a graduate of Louisiana Tech University, where she earned a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering. Her career includes 14 years of service to the NASA engineering community, as well as time spent as an engineering con-sultant—with an emphasis on engineering technology reliability. Lana has also worked in various capacities outside of the workplace—having served as the technical consultant for a new children’s book, Cool Engineering Activities for Girls by Heather E. Schwartz.

Recently, she has embarked upon an alternate career path – working as an independent relia-bility engineering contractor/consultant, while pursuing JD/MBA candidacy. Lana is an active member of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). She joined SWE in 1993, where she was a charter member of her collegiate section at Louisiana Tech. Since that time, she has served SWE in various capacities in the local Houston Area Section, Gulf Coast Region, and nationally. Her hallmark is promoting the success of women in STEM careers—advocating effective work-life integration and career mapping solutions that result in retaining women in STEM fields over their entire life span.

With a passion for seeing women achieve their maximum potential, Lana is very active in the community as well. It was during a trip to Chiba, Japan, for the 1999 International Confer-ence for Women Engineers and Scientists (ICWES), Flakes was introduced to the global nature of women’s issues. Through that experience, Lana resolved that there is more power and impact in women working collaboratively with women, globally, to address issues and overcome challenges. Being a natural motivator and with the conference as her catalyst, she places a focus on mentoring young women, from all walks of life, on developing long-term strategies for success in life—with her most recent feature being a guest panelist on Minneso-ta Public Radio, commenting on the topic of roadblocks keeping women/girls from underrepresented groups from entering careers in STEM.

Additionally, outside of the STEM arena, Lana volunteers her time in recovery/re-entry pro-grams to liberate women from lifestyles of domestic violence. In her leisure time, as an elected member of the Board of Directors of Tri-Unify (a national non-profit organization for multi-sport athletes of color), Lana is a champion of women’s wellness and vitality through multi-sport activity. She enjoys international travel; participating in multi-sport ath-letics; the loyalty of her canine companion, Higdon; and marriage to her husband, Kenneth.

Josephine Pereira, Recruitment and Student Program’s Manager, NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center Ms. Pereira is the Recruitment and Student Program’s Manager at NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, where she is responsible for the cooperative education pro-gram. This program allows students to rotate between semesters of school and work through


graduation. There are currently 100+ students in this program that are managed through her office. Through strategic recruitment and planning she assures that Kennedy Space Center is well equipped with the next generation of scientists, engineers, technologists, and business professionals that have the skills necessary to drive forward the NASA vision. Ms. Pereira be-gan at NASA in 2009 as a co-op student while attending the University of Central Florida, where she received her degree in Business management with a specialization in Human Re-source Management. During Ms. Pereira’s short time at KSC she has received numerous awards, including a Silver Dollar and Gold Dollar award as a result of her efforts with the transition of space shuttle employees. For more information about the KSC cooperative edu-cation program, please visit: http://coop.ksc.nasa.gov.

James Goonan, Director, International and Graduate Admissions, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University James L. Goonan is a marketing and recruitment professional with a 25-year record of solid accomplishments at a highly respected liberal arts university and a very specialized aerospace university. He is a respected leader with operations experience in university recruitment and admissions, who is known as a strategic thinker, strong communicator, and developer of key partnerships worldwide. Mr. Goonan’s core competencies include extensive market and op-portunity analysis, excellent negotiation and problem-solving skills, and root cause analysis.

Mr. Goonan received his B.S. and Graduate degree in marketing from the University of Scranton. Soon after, he worked as an Assistant to the Dean at the University of Scranton, and later became Director of Graduate Admissions. His proceeding roles at Scranton include Director of Admissions and Assistant Dean of Marketing and Recruiting, before leaving in 2009 to become Director of International and Graduate Admissions at Embry Riddle Aero-nautical University.

Michael Robinson, Global Staffing Specialist, Boeing Mike graduated from Arizona State University with a B.S. in Supply Chain Management in 2002 and joined Boeing in Huntington Beach, CA, in a supply chain rotational program. After five years in various supply chain roles, he changed career paths and joined Boeing’s College Programs organization as a College Recruiter and Intern Program Coordinator. In January 2009 he moved to Washington DC to fill a vacancy left by a retiring teammate, and began leading the east coast region intern program. He now coordinates the intern program in DC and Philadelphia, is the recruiter for several universities including Virginia Tech and Cornell University, and works with the Higher Education and STEM organization of Boeing to further Boeing’s STEM outreach and Higher Ed partnerships.

Mike loves his job and especially enjoys helping college students reach their career goals. He has an MBA from the University of Southern California, where he was the Networking Chair for his section, and he has a Graduate Certificate in Global Leadership in Teams and


Organizations from George Washington University. He enjoys travel and has lived in South Korea for two years, and his family has all lived in Mexico at different times.

Dr. Gregg Buckingham, Deputy Director, Education and External Relations Directory, NASA John F. Kennedy Space Center Dr. Gregg Buckingham serves as the Deputy Director, Education and External Relations Di-rectorate. The Directorate is responsible for KSC’s primary interfaces with external audiences, including academic institutional onsite guests, legislative business, community leaders, offsite speakers, the KSC Visitor Complex, and the general public. As a part of the Office of the Director, he assists in overseeing administrative support, resource management and integration, and business process development on behalf of the Directorate.

Buckingham also serves as KSC’s history point of contact. In this capacity he has fostered an oral history program as well as worked with professional historians on projects such as A His-tory of the Kennedy Space Center.

Prior to this position, Buckingham served as Chief, Education Programs and University Re-search Division of External Relations, at KSC. In this capacity, he was responsible for planning, coordinating, integrating, and implementing all education services at KSC. This in-cludes programs in the areas of K–12, higher education, informal education, and e-education. These programs take place both onsite at KSC and offsite at educational institutions and other locations. In 2010, while on a detail to NASA Headquarters, Buckingham served as Acting Deputy Associate Administrator for Program Integration, Office of Education.

Buckingham has worked for NASA since 1984, both at NASA Headquarters and at KSC. He began his federal career as a Presidential Management Fellow. He has received numerous awards and honors during his career including the NASA Equal Employment Opportunity Medal and the NASA Exceptional Service Medal.

Buckingham earned a Doctorate in Education from the University of Central Florida. His dissertation was titled, “An Evaluation of Face-to-Face Mentoring vs. Electronic Mentoring.” He has also served as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Central Florida. He lives with his wife, Cathy, in Orlando, Florida, and has two sons, Ben and Sam.

Russell Romanella, Director for Safety and Mission Assurance, NASA John F. Kennedy Space Center Mr. Romanella is the Director for Safety and Mission Assurance at NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida, where he is responsible for enabling NASA’s current programs, such as the Space Shuttle, Space Station, Exploration, and Launch Service Programs. He as-sures the center is ready to support new projects such as commercial cargo and commercial crew launch to the Space Station. Mr. Romanella joined NASA in 1982 as a co-op student


while attending Florida State University where he received his degree in Mathematics and Computer Science. Mr. Romanella’s broad range of experiences include Space Shuttle pro-cessing, the International Space Station, and NASA’s Exploration program. Mr. Romanella has received numerous achievement and performance awards, including NASA’s Exceptional Service Medal, the Center Director Award, and the President Rank Award for his leadership in preparing Space Station elements for launch from the Kennedy Space Center.

Ellen Patnaude, Fearless Presentations Trainer, The Leader’s Institute Ellen E. Patnaude has been training, developing, motivating, and coaching people to higher levels of success in a professional capacity since 1997. Her gift of insight allows her to often see what those with whom she is working are not able to see on their own—what is really getting in the way of their success. Ellen has a Bachelor of Arts degree with a double major in Biology and French. She has spent many years working as a community organizer in Central America, helping people in third-world countries to transform their communities in extraor-dinary ways.

While working with community leaders, Ellen was one of the top most requested trainers at local, regional, statewide, and national levels. She has effectively trained and coached people from all walks of life, from peasant farmers with no formal education living in extreme pov-erty in a third-world nation to high-level executives in corporate America. Her no-nonsense coaching style gets results FAST!

Hilka Klinkenberg, Founder and Managing Director, Etiquette International Hilka Klinkenberg, founder and managing director of Etiquette International, is the author of At Ease…Professionally (Bonus Books). As a recognized expert in the field of business eti-quette and international protocol she contributes to a variety of publications and websites around the world and is quoted frequently in major magazines and newspapers, such as Business Week, Investor’s Business Daily, Wall Street Journal, and Crain’s. Hilka has also been a regular guest on hundreds of radio and television programs.

For 20 years, Hilka has coached executives and professionals one-on-one, worked with teams at all levels from the boardroom to the back room, and has addressed large audiences at con-ferences and conventions. She has helped business executives objectively assess their strengths and weaknesses, and she has tactfully suggested concrete, proven methods for improvement in specific areas to help them understand the nuances of interacting with colleagues from dif-ferent cultures. Then she has supported them in implementing these techniques until their desired results are achieved.

Hilka is a certified coach, emotional intelligence practitioner, and a recognized expert in the field of international protocol and business etiquette. She holds a Masters in Policy Administra-tion with a concentration in International Policy and Finance from the School of International


and Public Affairs at Columbia University. Her broad international exposure includes having lived in six countries and having worked with clients in and from several more.

Jonathan Sprinkles, Connection Coach, Sprinklisms, Inc Jonathan Sprinkles was voted National College Speaker of the Year (APCA) and mentor of the Year (Disney Dreamer’s Academy)…and here’s why. He’s funny, he “keeps it real” and most importantly, his strategies WORK! In his talks, Jonathan provides the “wow” that stu-dents want and the substance coordinators value. This is why, with over 10 years of experience speaking at colleges, he has become known as being “as close to a sure thing as you can get” for a hit program or leadership retreat on your campus. After just a few minutes with Jonathan, his quick wit and down-home style of “teaching beautiful people to act like it,” will make you feel like you’ve known him your entire life. Jonathan is refreshingly differ-ent. His techniques are simple, down-to-earth and are designed to turn everyday students into extraordinary leaders.

David Jensen, Managing Director, Kincannon & Reed Global Executive Search Dave Jensen is the Managing Director, Kincannon & Reed Global Executive Search, a re-tained search firm working with life sciences, food, and agricultural clients worldwide. Prior to 2010, Jensen was the founder of CareerTrax, Inc, an executive search firm working in the life sciences, as well as the founder and CEO of Search Masters International, a top biotech-nology executive search practice founded in 1985. That company is now a unit of Kelly Services (Troy, MI) with its main offices in Chicago, IL. Prior to 1985, Jensen established a life sciences practice for Govig and Associates (Phoenix, AZ) under the Management Re-cruiters International franchise.

Dave Jensen’s monthly column, “Managing Your Career,” has been a visible part of the bio-tech industry for more than 20 years, the column ran for 12 years in BioPharm and is now in each issue of Contract Pharma where Jensen is the contributing editor. He has published over 300 papers on management and personal development topics for these journals along with regular features in Genetic Engineering News, Life Sciences Magazine, Journal of Commercial Biotechnology, and others. Mr. Jensen has delivered seminars and workshops in industry meetings internationally, including keynote presentations and at career events held by the NIH, the EPA, Johns Hopkins University, Karolinska Institute, Harvard, Princeton, UCSF, and the California State University Program for Education and Research in Biotechnology (CSUPERB).

Alex Bautista, Founder and Principal, Bautista Consulting Hortencio Alex Bautista is a performance coach and organizational development consultant in private practice. He graduated from the University of Illinois in Champaign Urbana with a BA in English Literature and a Sociology Minor focusing on how social groups influence


choice and goal fulfillment. Alex has earned designation as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) through the Human Resources Certification Institute; is a certified Birkman Consultant who utilizes the Birkman Method in his coaching and consulting en-gagements; and is a certified Versera Consultant who utilizes High Performance Accountability theory to support individual and organizational success.

Alex’s work is focused on maximizing individual and organizational effectiveness through stewardship of talent and purpose. He supports individuals and organizations in achieving their definition of success and mutual respect in conflict resolution (courageous peacemak-ing). His professional experience includes Performance Coaching and Consulting in the healthcare, higher education, and government sectors; Human Resources Management and Development Initiatives; Seminar Facilitation; Manager of Employee Relations Initiatives; and Recruitment of Talent for Executive, Management, and Professional positions.

Heather Fleming, CEO, Catapult Design Heather Fleming is the CEO of Catapult Design, a product strategy firm designing tools and technologies for disadvantaged communities worldwide. Catapult Design’s clients are organi-zations working in impoverished communities, addressing needs such as rural electrification, water purification and transport, food security, and improved health.

Before Catapult, Heather worked for several years as a product design consultant at D2M Inc. in Silicon Valley, designing products for a diverse range of clients. Concurrently, she co-founded and led a volunteer group focused on social impact design work through the San Francisco professional chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB). The team’s work was featured in a variety of media and publications, including Newsweek, WIRED.com, ABC News, and PRI’s The World.

In 2008, Heather was named a PopTech Social Innovation Fellow, a program aimed at high-potential young leaders with new approaches for transformational impact. In 2010 she was named a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader for her work with EWB and Cata-pult Design.

Brenda Collins, Chief of NASA Ames Office of Education and Public Outreach, NASA Ames Research Center Brenda Collins is the chief of NASA Ames Office of Education and Public Outreach. In this role, she serves as the subject matter expert for the center’s higher education programs, work-ing with NASA Headquarters and colleagues from the other NASA centers to achieve the agency’s objectives of inspiring students and sharing NASA’s information with the public. NASA’s Higher Education activities provide opportunities in research and development grants and contracts, undergraduate and graduate student support programs, faculty en-hancement, and postdoctoral research. Additionally, Ms. Collins manages two national-level


programs designed to develop Minority Institutions and increase the number of under-served/unrepresented persons in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). She is also the project manager and technical officer for two center unique programs for workforce development. Ms. Collins began her career with NASA at Ames Research Center as a contractor providing expertise in public services and external relations with special em-phasis on community relations. In 2001, after working one year in the Diversity and Equal Opportunity Office, Ms. Collins joined the Office of Education and Public Outreach as the University Affairs Officer, overseeing academic investments and Minority University Re-search and Education Programs (MUREP).

Joeletta Patrick, Assistant Director of STEM Education & Accountability (SEA), MUREP Manager, NASA Joeletta Patrick is a native of Greensboro, NC, where she attended North Carolina AT&T State University and received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering. Upon gradua-tion, she moved to Houston, TX, and began her career in the NASA family at Johnson Space Center (JCS). She worked as a flight controller for the international Space Station (ISS) as the lead Inventory Stowage Officer (ISO) for ISS mission 2A.1/STS-96. She transitioned from Mission Operations Directorate (MOD) to Engineering to work as a Time-Phased Power Analyst. Joeletta returned to MOD and became a civil servant in August 2004, work-ing in the ISS program in the Electrical Power System group.

Joeletta’s career has been marked by steadily increasing positions of responsibility and leader-ship. In 2009, after serving as a certified flight controller, she served as Acting JSC Minority University research and education Program (MUREP) Program Manager. To increase her career diversity she moved into an acting position in the newly developed JSC integrated Project Office housed in the Public Affairs Office (PAO). In 2010, Joeletta was selected to serve permanently as the JSC MUREP Program Manager. During the course of her career in this position she has served as the agency liaison for the Hispanic Engineering, Science and Technology (HESTEC) week. Her leadership resulted in a JSC Group Achievement Award for outstanding achievement in aligning JSC with the Agency’s goal to inspire, engage, and educate and the JSC Superior Achievement Award for her outstanding leadership, develop-ment, and integration.

In May 2011, Joeletta was selected as a MUREP Education Fellow as a developmental op-portunity to work in the Office of Education at NASA Headquarters. She has worked with internal and external organizations, institutions, federal agencies, and the community to lev-erage university relationships and investments in order to grow the number of diverse students prepared to work in STEM based fields. She has also worked to support STEM ini-tiatives and has served as a spokesperson for NASA’s commitment to STEM.


Joelatta was recently selected to serve as the agency’s MUREP Program manager under the re-engineered title of Assistant Director of STEM Education & Accountability (SEA) at NASA Headquarters in the Office of Education. She also enjoys volunteering in the com-munity and serving in social and professional organizations: she is president of the Board of Directors for The Legacy House (a North Carolina based education non-profit), and is a member of the National Society for Black Engineers (NSBE), the American Society for En-gineering Education (ASEE), and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.


Appendix F: Description of the Workshops

Day one: July 19, 2012 Simon T. Bailey Creativity: The Vujá dé Moment! “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used to create them.” That sage perspective comes from the Father of Modern Physics, Albert Einstein, and offers a practical explanation as to why we need to shift our thinking and create the future. The Vujá dé Moment! is a catalyst that invites learning participants to think differently by creating a disruption from the norm that encourages creativity and innovation. Simon T. Bailey invites you to open your minds, roll up your sleeves, and decide how you will take everything you do to the next level. The Vujá dé Moment! will show you how to program your GPS to personal and professional success. At the end of this session, participants will decide how to…

• Take action by learning the difference between Déjà vu and Vujá dé.

• Take action by using the Vujá dé creativity tool in their academic and profes-sional lives.

• Take action by galvanizing their career and role to create the future.

• Take action by implementing the five critical steps to shifting their life from av-erage to brilliant.

Day two: July 20, 2012 Brian Wong Career Planning: Kiip Getting Lucky Brian will talk about the art of creating your own luck—generating serendipity. Understand-ing your place in your environment: the people you know, the skills you have, the ideas you generate—combined with audacity—all create an element of attraction that will wow you. There are people around you that may always seem to be “lucky”—why? And why do they


seem to get more and more “lucky”? Where does luck breed more luck when you’re a young entrepreneur? What are your levers and triggers? Brian will share his experiences in the last few years that have helped him create that dynamic of generating serendipity.

Career Pathways Panel Moderated by Sonya Greene Panelists: Lana Fountain Flakes from the Society of Women Engineers, Josephine Pereira from NASA Human Resources, James Goonan from Embry Riddle Graduate Admissions, and Michael Robinson from The Boeing Company The Career Pathways Panel will give students insights on how to prepare for life after college. Students will hear from experts about post-graduate opportunities including the graduate school admissions process and entering the STEM workforce, as well as strategies to leverage membership in professional associations to position themselves as leaders in their fields.

The panel will:

• Address the importance of professional associations and what they offer in terms of employment resources and professional networking

• Discuss employment and other opportunities with NASA and what students should anticipate when applying

• Discuss the opportunities that earning an advanced STEM professional degree offers and the factors students should keep in mind when preparing their appli-cation

• Discuss employment opportunities for STEM professionals in the private sector and the difference between the public and private sectors as well as the differ-ence in the hiring process

Ellen E. Patnaude, The Leadership Institute Fearless Presentations The Leader’s Institute is here to teach you the importance of three main topics that will cre-ate a professional impression that you will be able to utilize when creating your future career.

Focusing on areas of:

• Delivering powerful introductions to your audience—Learn memory tricks that you will be able to utilize in any situation!

• Identifying your personal strengths as a presenter—What strengths do you hold? How can your professional relationships benefit?


• 10 ways to add impact to your presentation—Easy to remember skills that you can implement to your presentation that will add value

The skill set that you will learn from today’s presentation will enable you to develop the con-fidence you need to succeed. We will work towards overcoming obstacles and blocks that may be holding you back from your true success! By continuing to practice your new skills, you will continue to grow and develop as a professional.

Day three: July 21, 2012 Hilka Klinkenberg Moving from the Classroom to the Conference Room: Business behaviors that will send your career into orbit In the current economic climate, a good education alone may not be sufficient to propel you on the road to success. A mastery of professional behaviors can maximize your opportunities as you transition into the work world and get your career on track.

Being connected does not equate to communicating effectively or collaborating to build the relationships that can fuel your success. New technologies come on the market faster than the accompanying standards of acceptable behavior, and devotion to the latest technology may be exactly what hinders your efforts. This interactive program will identify and address the behaviors that impact your ability to work effectively in the professional world.

By focusing on the why’s and wherefores of professional etiquette, you’ll come to understand the components of stellar communications that go way beyond being connected. You'll gain an appreciation for the importance of building the relationships that can give your career a needed boost and realize what it takes to build those relationships. You’ll take away a greater awareness of what it takes to exhibit professionalism at work so that your behaviors enhance rather than undermine your capabilities.

Jonathan Sprinkles Influencing Others and Building Consensus You are about to discover proven strategies used by some of the world’s top leaders to capti-vate a crowd and influence people’s thinking. Whether you are getting someone to open up one-on-one or presenting your ideas to your hall, learn the “formula” for getting the best-case scenario every time. You’ll understand strategies to effectively communicate your mes-sage to avoid confrontation.


This high-energy, highly interactive workshop teaches you how to eloquently (and impres-sively) communicate your ideas and persuade people to show up … and bring someone else!

You will learn:

• How to quickly win people to your side…without “sucking up”

• How to effectively prepare for an important conversation (Hint—those that do this usually get their way!)

• ”Anchoring” strategies that eliminate the need for constantly repeating yourself

• The three keys to diffusing excuses before they begin. Say goodbye to bickering!

• Simple strategies to resolve conflict and embrace constructive confrontation

• The secret that strong-willed students won’t tell you that you must know in or-der to earn their respect

David Jensen Job Offer Negotiation Strategies for STEM Careers Working up a job offer is always difficult when you are attempting this tricky negotiation for the first time, whether it is for a job in a company or for a tenure-track appointment in aca-demia. In this presentation, AAAS (ScienceCareers.org) columnist Dave Jensen will discuss how important it is to understand all of the issues surrounding that prospective job offer, from both sides of the fence. By putting yourself in the shoes of your potential employer, you’ll be able to see exactly how issues like time, budget, and personality fit into the equa-tion. In an exercise showing how one applicant moves through the negotiation process, Jensen will guide each audience member to see clearly where the possible stumbling blocks are. Throughout this workshop, the speaker will help you maximize your job offers to suit your needs. There are lots of take home lessons provided in this 60-minute workshop, in-cluding fifteen tips for better job offer negotiations.

Alex Bautista Mentorship and Goal Setting This workshop will provide you with an overview of key elements of effective goal setting and the op-timal use of a mentoring relationship in order to boost your performance capabilities. During the workshop you will have the opportunity to set two goals that are achievable during the academic year. One goal will focus on you leveraging the power of your mentor and the second goal will focus on you increasing your effectiveness in managing goals.


Participants learn about Four Fundamental Modes of Cognition/Personality; the nature of feedback and self-exploration as a function of success; your role as a mentee; the impact of knowing your strengths and weakness in goal setting; and the impact diversity of talent plays in setting and achiev-ing goals. Throughout the session we will topically discuss the interplay between the Scientific Method and Emotional Intelligence as they relate to effective goal setting and goal management. Heather Fleming Making your Passion your Career For most of us, our work defines who we are. After exchanging names, the first question we ask of new people at a party is, “What do you do?” The average American spends more than 40 hours of their time, energy, and thinking each week in the workplace. It’s become such a routine that we’ve almost dissociated our careers with our interests in passions. So how do you “follow your bliss”? Is there a right time in one’s career to pursue personal goals over practical ones? And how do you know if you’re ready? The journey to discovering your inter-ests and how that translates into a career is personal and the knowledge is often tacit. Heather Fleming, the Founder and CEO of Catapult Design, will share the story of how she created the job she wanted to have, the resources she needed to achieve her goal, and the big-gest challenges she faced along the way.


Appendix G: MPR Observation Notes and Description of Presentations

Description of the Symposium Proceedings

Thursday, July 19: Welcome

Welcome Greetings, 6–7 p.m. The Leadership Symposium began with welcome greetings from several NASA staff mem-bers. Holly Triska, the MUST Project Manager at HCF, welcomed the MUST Scholars back for another Leadership Symposium. She introduced Theresa Martinez, a MUST Project Manager at NASA, who provided demographic statistics for the current cohort of MUST Scholars, of which there are 75 students. Vanessa Webbs, also a MUST Project Manager at NASA, briefly welcomed the students back and commended their mentoring participation over the previous year. This year’s Symposium is a joint effort between MUST and the Jen-kins Fellows. After MUST leaders greet the returning students, Karen Bradford, NASA AMES Chief of Staff, welcomed the Jenkins Fellows.

Joeletta Patrick, NASA’s new MUREP Manager, presented a PowerPoint describing the cur-rent state of NASA, the NASA FY 2013 budget, and the financial outlook of the MUREP programs. As a result of budget cuts from $138M to $100M for FY 2013, NASA created a Portfolio Development Team, tasked with developing a new NASA Education Portfolio. Dr. Carl Person led this team of space center leaders. After assuring the MUST Scholars and Jen-kins Fellows that MUREP is funded through FY 2013, Ms. Patrick ended the opening remarks with a quote; “it’s better to be ready for opportunity and it never come, then for op-portunity to come and not to be ready.” With these words in mind, Ms. Patrick challenged all students to meet three people they did not know before arriving: someone you need to know because they have gone places you want to go and have seen things that you have not, one who needs you because you have information they need to improve themselves, and someone with whom you have things in common because we all need a best friend. Follow-ing these speeches, dinner was served.

Dinner Keynote: Creativity: The Vujá dé Moment: Simon T. Bailey, 7–8 p.m. Simon T. Bailey, founder of Brilliance Institute and author of the book The Vujá dé Moment! Shift from Average to Brilliant, was the first keynote speaker of the Symposium. Over dinner, he defined the vujá dé moment for students and explained to students how to attain it in their own lives. Mr. Bailey used anecdotes and stories from his past to inspire the students.


Bailey described his journey from a poor disadvantaged youth in Atlanta to working at Dis-ney to his decision to create his own business. According to Mr. Bailey, vujá dé is something you’ve never seen, but you intend to create or, in other words, your imagination preplays pictures of a coming attraction. By embracing your vujá dé moment, you articulate your fu-ture goals in a positive way. After describing his past, Mr. Bailey warns students about the negative impact that self-doubt has on individuals. Describing how he once turned down a potential job offer at the Ritz Carlton because he felt he was not good enough for the posi-tion, Mr. Bailey uses his own personal experience with self-doubt to illustrate its dangers. This self-doubt can cause havoc on a person because “who you think you are is what holds you back.”

In addition to avoiding self-doubt and thinking positively, Mr. Bailey encouraged students to live in the moment to engage their brilliance. He described his decision to quit his job and change directions in 1999, after asking himself three questions:

1) What would I do if I knew I couldn’t fail? 2) What would I do if I wasn’t paid for it? 3) What makes me come alive?

These three questions provide the basis for all of Mr. Bailey’s work since and are the core of his vujá dé moment. To help further illustrate this new concept to his audience, Mr. Bailey described the vujá dé moment of several highly successful individuals and their capacity for thinking outside the box. By seeing things differently and flipping the script, these entrepre-neurs and the products they created embraced new ideas that were highly successful. Examples included the iPhone and its downloadable applications, which provided more than a traditional phone at its conception; Five Guys and their signature action of adding extra fries to each order; and Zappos, which offers $2,000 to each new employee after their 4-week training plan. Those who do not see themselves as part of the Zappos team are encouraged to accept the money and find a new occupation. After describing these successful forays, Mr. Bailey explored the concept of failure from the vujá dé perspective. He posits that success does not resonate as strongly as failure because it is without significance.

Following this exploration of success and failure as vujá dé moments, Mr. Bailey segued into a discussion of how to “celebrate the moment” and outlined a path from moment to mo-mentum to monumental results. In order to attain monumental results, students should set aside as little as 5 minutes each day to think about what they are doing to better themselves. At the end of his speech, Mr. Bailey described a woman who dreamt she was being chased by a lion. After she had this dream several days in row, she asked a friend for advice. Her friend suggested that she ask the lion why he is chasing her. When she then asked the lion, he re-sponds “I am your strength and courage. Why are you running from me?” After opening the floor for questions, Mr. Bailey provided additional information about his future plans, about


how to cope when you are a lone trailblazer, and how autism contributes to finding one’s brilliance.

Networking Reception, 8–9 p.m. After the dinner keynote speech, Dr. Sonya Greene, Director of Workforce Development for the United Negro College Fund Special Programs Corporation (UNCFSP), introduced the next activity, a networking event. She described the reception as a way to encourage students to start Ms. Patrick’s earlier challenge of meeting three new people. Each student’s name tag had the name of either a Mercury mission or a planet on the back, which represented the eight different groups for the activity. Once each group was assembled, the students were charged with introducing themselves, using their smartphones to find two fun facts about the mission or planet of their group, and then completing the NASA exercise Survival on the Moon. In this exercise each group worked together to rank 15 items in order of importance for moon survival. While some groups tried to work as one to order the items, some split in-to yet smaller groups of two or three and compared notes afterward. After about 45 minutes, everyone reconvened and each group presented their fun facts and their moon survival score.

Friday, July 20: Undergraduate Success

Career Planning: Kiip Getting Lucky: Brian Wong, 9:15–10:15 a.m. Brian Wong, the 21-year-old cofounder and CEO of Kiip, Inc., was the first speaker of the day. During his introduction, Kiip, a mobile rewards network that offers users real-world re-wards instead of ads during mobile gameplay, was described as the product of the luck Mr. Wong pledged to improve for the students. He outlined ten specific tips for improving luck through actions and thoughts. His first tip was start playing. Mr. Wong explained that rather than waiting, students should dig right in to something they are interested in. He warned that people sometimes bury themselves with too much data and forget that trial and error is part of the learning process. Second, surround yourself with other lucky people by network-ing and building relationships from the ground up. He offered his experiences working at Digg as an example. Despite getting laid off, the relationships Mr. Wong developed there helped him think critically about his business ideas. When interacting with new people, he suggested asking “what is your story” rather than “what do you do.” Changing the approach to networking can give you a candid look at others’ interests.

Third, choose a really big field. Mr. Wong admitted that specialization is the bigger focus in higher education, but broader fields give you more room for failure. In fact, figuring out what not to do is as important as what to do.

Fourth, use your superpower. Mr. Wong explained that, as a society, we tend to focus too much time and energy on fixing our weaknesses. He encouraged the scholars to think about


the things that their friends find to be their strengths. By honing those skills at which you are best, your luck will increase.

Fifth, make a game with fewer players. An example, Mr. Wong described meeting the world’s number one team in tandem surfing. As a small sport, there are only 30 teams in the world. His own company, Kiip, was the first of its kind, which automatically made them the leader. These positive reinforcements helped encourage continued innovation when he first started his business.

Sixth, remove unlucky from your vocabulary. Mr. Wong encouraged the students to re-focus their perspective and to become more confident as a result. In each town to which he has travelled, Mr. Wong has sought out the sketchiest neighborhood. The different perspectives he has received from these journeys have given him insight into the motivations of people in that city.

Seventh, it’s all about relative luck. Mr. Wong suggested that people work harder when they don’t feel entitled. By thinking as though no one cared, individuals work that much harder toward achieving their goals. He described his parents’ background as a contrast to his own way of life. They immigrated to Canada from China and, while they have been successful, his parents still appreciate small pleasures. His mother has always appreciated sweets because they were not readily available when she was growing up. His father, who grew up in extreme poverty, ate rice for the first time at the age of 18, but has still become successful.

Eighth, use what “normally” gets you lucky (similar to the fourth tip of using your super-power). People would do better to use their strengths to improve their luck. Mr. Wong encouraged students to rely on what normally has brought them luck, which will give them confidence in the future.

Ninth, make people lucky. While employed at Digg, Mr. Wong always used his strengths and knowledge to educate older generations about technology. At the same time, he was able to learn from them and kept himself in their minds as someone to go to for future advice.

Finally, see luck. Since inspirations have come from people he has met and places he has seen, Mr. Wong encouraged students to travel. For him, the resulting experiences allowed him to understand different perspectives, which helped with the vision for Kiip.

After describing his ten tips, Mr. Wong answered questions from the students. During the Q&A period, he encouraged 5-minute calls to mentors each week to maintain these relation-ships. He also described his disheartened outlook after he was laid off from Digg, but that he kept a positive perspective that allowed him to have these new breakthroughs. When asked about how to handle rejection, Mr. Wong discussed the numerous times he heard “no” be-fore getting funding. Rather than getting upset, he maintained a positive perspective: those


people who rejected him had just missed out on a great opportunity. As a warning, he ad-vised students to lower their expectations because rejection is hard to take, especially when your hopes are too high. As a final piece of advice for the MUST Scholars, Mr. Wong en-couraged each of them to find one person in their field of interest and email them.

Career Pathways Panel: Josephine Pereira, Lana Fountain Flakes, James Goonan, and Michael Robinson, 10:30–11:30 a.m. Dr. Sonya Greene briefly introduced the panel members who then provided a little more in-formation about themselves for the students. In her opening remarks, Ms. Flakes discusses the importance of professional associations and their networking opportunities. These associ-ations offer students the opportunity to identify mentors who will help them develop their career goals.

Next, Josephine Pereira, a Kennedy Space Center (KSC) coordinator, described the passion of the people with whom she works. She also briefly described her experiences as a co-op par-ticipant. While initially concerned about taking the extra year to graduate, Ms. Pereira discovered that her ability to build relationships while working was immensely useful after graduation. She also benefitted from the work experience and already had a job upon gradua-tion, which was not the case for some of her friends who graduated in four years and were still looking for a job a year later. Ms. Pereira also highlighted the importance of internships and that sacrificing for an unpaid internship will often pay off later as extra work experience in the job market.

Mr. Goonan, Director of International and Graduate Admissions at Embry-Riddle Aeronau-tical University, gave scholars information on the benefits of getting a graduate education. He stressed that a graduate degree can help change their lives. Mr. Goonan then outlined several important steps to successfully applying for graduate school, including making a plan, taking a self-assessment to prepare for the GMAT and other tests, and using the personal statement to differentiate oneself from the rest of the applicant pool. He went into further detail about the personal statement, encouraging students to put together a statement relat-ing their goals and reasons for applying with their institution of choice and to include demonstrated leadership experiences. Last, he told the students to make sure that their facul-ty recommendations were strong and include academic work. Once enrolled, students should visit the career office early because they can help find appropriate activities to build appropri-ate experience that will be needed in the workplace.

The last panelist, Michael Robinson, is a recruiting officer for Boeing. After describing the current state of Boeing, with its seven to nine-year backlog on airplane orders, Mr. Robinson explained that Boeing is in need of experienced workers. Mr. Robinson described the Boeing internships, of which two-thirds are of a technical nature. Using his experience as a recruiter, Mr. Robinson gave the scholars advice on job applications. Similar to Mr. Goonan, he


stressed building their resume with evidence of collaboration and leadership skills. He rec-ommended applying to a job before speaking to a recruiter at a career fair and explained that this would give interested students an added edge over other potential applicants. He also urged students to hone their transferable skills, since many professionals do not end up in the fields they had envisioned. He also gave information specific to those interested in Boeing employment. On average, Boeing employees applied for 12 different positions before getting hired. In addition, approximately 25 percent of those hired apply solely online without mak-ing any other connections. While others use networking as a way to get in the door, it was not the only way employees were able to gain employment at Boeing. His final two pieces of advice to students were to make sure their resume was tailored to survive the initial keyword search program and to be persistent in their job search.

Following these introductory remarks, Dr. Greene opened the floor for questions from the students. Several asked Ms. Pereira about NASA-specific opportunities and she provided more detailed information about the application process and the number of opportunities available in the coming fiscal year. The final question was posed to both Mr. Goonan and Mr. Robinson and focused on whether graduate school or work experience was more valua-ble to a future employer. While stressing the long-term value of graduate education, both felt that work experience was more important.

Kennedy Space Center, 11:45 a.m.–5:45 p.m.

Dinner, 6:00 p.m. During dinner, several MUST Scholars gave a 5-minute presentation about the MUST Out-reach website and MUST Business Challenge. Adwoa Boake updated the students on the functionality of the MUST Outreach website and asked for volunteers to continue the site, since the majority of those currently working on the site are graduating seniors. She high-lighted the reasons for the site’s creation—to provide an outlet for MUST Scholars to speak about and describe the reasons they love STEM. In addition, the website includes video con-tent and provides resources and educational content to engage younger generations in STEM, which need to be maintained. The resources are organized by topic and include ex-ternal links to STEM content. Adwoa also laid out some future ideas for the site, including integration with social networking platforms, reaching out to organizations, and devising a publicity campaign to share these resources with non-MUST Scholars. She also mentioned the desire to transition from a static to a dynamic site (bit.ly/mustoutreach).

Umar presented his new idea about a MUST Business Challenge. Prefacing his thoughts with the adage that passion drives innovation, Umar proposed that MUST Scholars develop a platform to bring their different ideas together. He envisioned an incubator of MUST Scholar ideas that used the pre-existing MUST community website as a hub for information.


Adwoa and Umar finished their presentations by informing students of an interest meeting to take place that evening at 9:30 p.m.

Fearless Presentations – The Leader’s Institute: Ellen E. Patnaude, 6:30–8:00 p.m. Ms. Patnaude, an employee of the Leader’s Institute, gave a PowerPoint presentation de-scribing how to create an effective presentation. She gave the students helpful tips to remember and a handout to use. The goal of her presentation was to make the students more comfortable speaking in front of large groups. She outlined the topics for her discussion, in-cluding ten ways to reduce speaking anxiety, powerful introductions, identifying your strengths, and adding impact.

Ms. Patnaude began by asking the students to think of a particular memory. After a few moments she explained that humans access information through stored snapshots and that the students had likely pictured their memories rather than picturing text. She proceeded to describe and demonstrate how to use a memory stacking technique to help make successful presentations. The memory stacking technique is a method in which several images are con-nected to topics in one’s presentation, which make the entire speech easier to remember. After asking students to participate in memory stacking, Ms. Patnaude went through each of the ten tips: when presenting, remember that 90 percent of your nervousness doesn’t show to the audience; don’t memorize your speech word for word or you will risk losing your train of thought during your presentation; don’t commit a talk to memory, but always have some notes written down to help you; arrive early to become comfortable with your surroundings and to check your technology; breathe; smile more and look for other smiling faces in the audience to encourage you; drop your hands and gesture freely; be an expert by being pre-pared and avoid relying on improvisation to sustain an effective talk; be highly energetic; and practice your speech ahead of time, but avoid mirrors which can be distracting.

In the next segment of her talk, Ms. Patnaude gave several helpful pieces of advice to use for powerful introductions. She reminded students that these can be effective tips during a presentation or networking events. To make a powerful introduction, Ms. Patnaude advised students to provide the following: their name, what they do, a geographical reference, what they enjoy about their job, something unique about themselves, something they are proud of, and their thoughts on the day’s topic of interest. Adding to the theme Mr. Wong discussed ear-lier in the day, Ms. Patnaude urged students to identify and use their presentation strengths.

After describing these tips for strong presentations and introductions, Ms. Patnaude identi-fied two personality dimensions to help students map their presentation style. A continuum from inward to outward was presented on the x-axis while logic and emotion were used on the y-axis. At this point, students were asked to identify their personal style on these two di-mensions and to place themselves into one of the four resulting quadrants (i.e., expressive, amiable, analytic, and driver). After outlining the presentation strengths and weaknesses for


each style, Ms. Patnaude described how to add impact to a presentation. Using stories and encouraging audience participation are both important.

After this presentation, students were dismissed to gather their MUST Challenge groups to prepare for their presentations on the final day.

Saturday, July 21: Workforce Success

Moving from the Classroom to the Conference Room: Business Behaviors that Will Send Your Career into Orbit: Hilka Klinkenberg, 8:00–9:00 a.m. Hilka Klinkenberg, founder of Etiquette International, gave a PowerPoint presentation on appropriate business etiquette. After describing her 20 years of experience in the field of business etiquette, Ms. Klinkenberg cited a Pew Research Center report on the high level of unemployment for 18–27-year-olds (30 percent). Despite this troubling statistic, Ms. Klinkenberg also provided some good news: qualified applicants with skills in STEM fields are highly desirable. Incorporating participation from the scholars, Ms. Klinkenberg outlined the traits and actions that lead to a successful employee, including their interactions with peers and qualifications for the job. Most importantly, their cultural and behavioral fit is es-pecially important.

To improve building relationships along with written and verbal communication, Ms. Klinkenberg presented the students with common knowledge, common practice, and the best practices. She stressed the importance of valuing relationships and treating people re-spectfully. Cultivating and maintaining relationships, while they take time, are necessary for references. Ms. Klinkenberg then segued into a discussion of appropriate business communi-cation practices. She listed common errors in verbal communication and urged students to avoid unprofessional and ungrammatical written communication, especially in emails. In the final segment of her presentation, Ms. Klinkenberg displayed several versions of the same email as examples of common written communication problems and suggested ways to im-prove the email. She briefly described the importance of time management before ending her presentation.

Influencing Others and Building Consensus: Jonathan Sprinkles, 9:10–10:10 a.m. Jonathan Sprinkles, a connection coach for his own company, Sprinklisms, gave a presenta-tion on how to influence others and build consensus. He began his talk with a highly energetic chant involving the entire audience. After the students were engaged, he asked them to stand and partner off for a short exercise. Each participant tried to convince their partner to join them on their side of an invisible line. After several minutes, Mr. Sprinkles stopped the students and asked both successful and not successful groups to reflect on their experience. Mr. Sprinkles then compared their responses and bargaining approaches to the


skills needed to influence others and to build consensus. Throughout his presentation, he en-couraged students to write things down, especially those words that resonated with them personally. Explaining that we all teach people how to treat us, Mr. Sprinkles reminded the scholars that all stories have two dialogs—one from the other person and one within your own head. As an example, Mr. Sprinkles described his personal struggle with feelings of in-adequacy as a minority. Internally, he wondered whether his success was based on him ‘filling a quota.’ Ultimately, he rebuilt his self-esteem by reminding himself that he had earned and deserved the good things in his life. He encouraged the students to think the same way.

Mr. Sprinkles asked the scholars to describe the most effective persuasion and influence tool. After listening to their thoughts, he revealed that studies consistently find listening to be the most effective tool. As a way to listen better, he encouraged students to be interested, not in-teresting. At this point, Mr. Sprinkles described the organization of this talk. He provided details about his personal background, then described how to prepare for a conversation, how to subtly influence any outcome, and ended with a description of how to get what you want.

As the son of divorced parents, Mr. Sprinkles’ early life was highly mobile. He lived in seven different houses before the age of 13 and experienced trouble adapting to life as a black man living in a predominantly white community. Rather than focusing on being the richest per-son, he tried to be the most prepared. His father helped define his focus and encouraged Mr. Sprinkles to never let what is on the outside define what is on the inside.

Mr. Sprinkles warned the students that anything they blame has more power over their life than they do. He used this thought to discuss the concept of winning. He described the stu-dents as very competitive during the opening exercise, but how did they decide who had won? According to Mr. Sprinkles, winning should be based on a person’s ultimate outcome. Quoting Stephen Covey, author of The 7 habits of highly effective people, Sprinkles encour-aged the scholars to “begin with the end in mind.” By organizing one’s thoughts, scholars can more easily understand what their ultimate outcome should be. Sprinkles proceeded to project photos of several individuals and asked the scholars to explain what these individuals all had in common. After listening to their responses, he explained that they all want more pleasure and less pain from life, which led to a discussion about successful negotiation. Mr. Sprinkles stressed that all confrontations are about determining whether someone will help or hurt them. He provided four questions to pull people in successfully during a negotiation:

1. What is most important to you? 2. What is your best case scenario? 3. What would you say to describe this to others? 4. What would it take to solve your problem?


After discussing each of these important questions in turn, Mr. Sprinkles shifted his focus from negotiation to receiving feedback and provided four rules for the scholars:

1. All feedback is a gift. 2. They are speaking their truth, not the truth. 3. Consider the source. People who are hurting are often those who provide negative feedback that

hurts others. In fact, what people say about you says more about them than it does about you. 4. Fix it. Develop an action plan.

Once feedback is received, Mr. Sprinkles stressed that you can only respond in one of two ways; you can defend your decision or you can receive the feedback and move on. He de-scribed that this is especially important because scrutiny is a part of success. He reminded students that the more fans one has, the more critics they have as well, which makes learning to receive feedback graciously extremely important. At the end of his speech, Sprinkles demon-strated his own adherence to his four rules for receiving feedback and asked the students to provide theirs.

Job Offer Negotiation Strategies for STEM Careers: David G. Jensen, 10:25–11:25 a.m. David Jensen, Managing Director of Kincannon & Reed Global Executive Search, provided strategies and practical advice about negotiating job offers. In addition to showing a Power-Point presentation, Mr. Jensen also engaged the students with a hands-on negotiation exercise. He opened his presentation by asking how many students expected employment in the near future, to which the majority of hands were raised. Echoing some of the sentiments presented by Mr. Sprinkles, Mr. Jensen described negotiation as a life skill. He noted that it is important to know how to break through stalemates and standoffs, especially when dis-cussing a potential job.

Mr. Jensen outlined the possible types of jobs where negotiation is possible and encouraged students to be themselves and to cover all bases during the negotiation period. He quoted the Merchant of Venice, reminding students that salary should not be the sole focus of their nego-tiations: “he that is well paid is well satisfied.” Scholars should know that salary is not the only item to negotiate with an employer; travel for scientific meetings, stock options, bonus-es, job title, vacation time, responsibilities, work from home, start date, early performance review, and specialized equipment are all potential bargaining items. While these particular examples were more appropriate for industry positions, Mr. Jensen also provided a list of ne-gotiable items for academic jobs, including startup package, teaching load, office space, summer support, computer and lab space, and support for scientific meetings.

Following this general introduction, the scholars participated in a negotiation exercise. They were placed into pairs and each student was given an envelope. In each pair, one student re-


ceived the instructions as the applicant and the other was given information only known to the hiring manager. After reading their information, they were given 20 minutes to negotiate the best offer for their role. Once finished, Mr. Jensen asked students to describe their nego-tiation process and the job offers to which they agreed. He then provided several important tips for the students to keep in mind when bargaining with an employer. His first suggestion, to shut up, garners a few laughs from the audience. He explained that applicants occasionally talk themselves out of an offer. Keeping quiet and waiting for the new employer to speak first is an important tool in negotiation. He provided several other important tips, including hav-ing a strategy behind every concession, making sure they have an informed reason behind their opening offer, and never forgetting the peripheral concessions that can add value to a final offer (e.g., scientific conferences). After outlining his top ten tips, Mr. Jensen concluded with several smaller pieces of advice. He encouraged future job seekers to aim higher and to listen and ask questions. These skills take practice, but this session gave all students an intro-duction to the many aspects of job offer negotiation.

Mentorship and Goal Setting: Alex Bautista, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Alex Bautista, founder and principal of Bautista Consulting, gave a PowerPoint presentation that also included some student participation. To begin his presentation, he asked students to define the difference between responsibility and accountability. After the students spent several minutes discussing at their tables, each group presented their interpretation. After hearing from each group, Mr. Bautista added several important differences to the list of stu-dent responses. He described responsibility as a mindset of ownership for producing a result. Accountability, on the other hand, is “answering for what we have produced without fault, guilt, or blame.” Mr. Bautista then shifted focus to discuss the importance of responsibility and accountability in mentorship. He stressed that giving advice is less effective when yelling or negativity is incorporated. Mr. Bautista encouraged students to create a dialogue with their potential mentors and to seek out mentors who are approachable. Throughout his presentation, Mr. Bautista provided real-world examples for each talking point and anecdotes from his time as a human resources manager for a hospital. In addition to learning and un-derstanding the distinction between responsibility and accountability, the scholars also discussed what makes a successful mentorship relationship and how to handle a bad mentor.

Mr. Bautista also discussed the Johari window, explaining that each individual has a ‘blind self’ about which he or she is unaware. Part of being a good mentor is helping mentees im-prove their blind self. Trust, mutual respect, and dialogue all strengthen the mentoring relationship. Mr. Bautista ended his presentation by encouraging the MUST Scholars to devel-op two smart goals: those goals that are timely, specific, measurable, attainable, and relevant.


Lunch Keynote: Making Your Passion Your Career: Heather Fleming, 12:40–1:40 p.m. As CEO of her own company, Catapult Design, Heather Fleming gave students insight into finding one’s passion and using that energy to start one’s own business. As a Stanford gradu-ate in engineering, she described the difficulties she experienced finding a job after college. After several months of fruitless searches, she sent an email to her alumni network, offering her design expertise for free. She ended up volunteering for the one company that responded, and within a year she became a paid contractor. At this point, Ms. Fleming gradually became disillusioned with her job and its focus on producing products for high-level consumers. As a way to increase her sustainable engineering work, she began volunteering for Engineers Without Borders (EWB).

As part Navajo, Ms. Fleming had seen the high poverty and engineering challenges on Indi-an reservations and began to see connections between her volunteer work and what’s needed on reservations. Gradually, she began taking increasingly more time off work to lead projects for EWB. She helped create several low-cost products in developing countries, including the hippo roll that is used to haul water in South Africa. Eventually, these interests led Ms. Fleming to decide to start a design firm of her own with a social impact. She started with a goal of working with entrepreneurs to develop products in impoverished areas and countries and developed a business plan. After describing her transition from developing her passion to starting an organization, Ms. Fleming gave students several important tips to help them be-come successful entrepreneurs. First, she pointed out that it is important to have a network of both peers and experienced mentors to help guide them through the process. She quipped that having the courage to take this step was one of her most difficult decisions, but that “failure is not the worst thing; regret is.” Similar to Mr. Wong’s tips from the previous day, Ms. Fleming also stressed the importance of persistence and knowing your strengths. She provided an anecdote about getting stranded in the middle of an airline strike in Africa, but by adapting to new situations (a personal strength of hers), she was able to successfully navi-gate the situation. Ms. Fleming concluded by encouraging all students to consider entrepreneurship, and described it as the key to escaping poverty in developing nations.

Orlando Science Center and CityWalk, 2–9 p.m.

Sunday, July 22: MUST Annual Challenge

MUST Annual Challenge: Student Presentations, 8–9:30 a.m. Marcos Valdez, the National Director of Student Leadership for HCF, opened the final day of the Symposium. He described the MUST Annual Challenge, a new initiative to encourage MUST Scholar collaboration over the summer. At the beginning of June, students were or-ganized into nine groups. Each group decided on a NASA-related topic about which they


would create a 5-minute PowerPoint presentation and an accompanying handout, to be shared at this year’s Symposium. Mr. Valdez described his work with these students over the summer and presented each group in turn for their presentation. The students organized their presentations differently, with some choosing one or two students as speakers, while other groups included participation by all students in the group. Several common themes cropped up, including social networking, STEM education, and mentoring.

Closing and Recognition Ceremony, 9:40–10:40 a.m. Joeletta Patrick, the new NASA MUREP Manager, gave the closing remarks to the MUST Scholars. She asked the scholars whether they had completed her challenge from the first day of the Symposium, to meet three people they didn’t know. Ms. Patrick then encouraged stu-dents to take this time to reflect on the lessons learned from the Symposium and think about things they planned to do differently moving forward. She compared these reflections to pressing control-alt-delete on one’s computer; when there is a problem, we open the task manager and find out which programs are running. Those that are taking up too much memory and resources need to end. This same process extends to the people and activities in our lives. She urged all scholars to write down the decisions and changes they want to make before they are forgotten. Ms. Patrick pledged to be accessible to the students and closed by encouraging them to rise above the fear factor and explore opportunities outside their com-fort zone.

At this point, the awards ceremony began, with each graduating MUST Scholar receiving recognition for their accomplishments. Several students also received special recognition and awards for their important contributions to the MUST program. After the awards, Vanessa Webbs provided some brief words of closing. She commended the students for their success and expressed confidence that they will continue to touch those around them. Following the-se remarks, Dr. Sonya Greene led the Jenkins Fellows awards ceremony. Karen Bradford, the NASA AMES Chief of Staff, then presented Dr. Jenkins with a Lifetime Achievement Award. She described her confidence that these students would take the ‘next step’ in space exploration and encouraged all of them to expand their energy.


Appendix H: Jenkins Fellows Results

Thirty-five Jenkins Predoctoral Fellows attended the event. Table H-1 shows the number and percentage of surveys collected, by survey type. Jenkins Scholars only attended some events at the MUST Symposium.

Table H-1: Number and percentage of surveys collected, by event

Workshop/survey type Jenkins Fellows

number collected Jenkins Fellows

percent collected

End of Conference Summative Survey 16 46%

Individual Session Feedback Forms

Career Planning: Kiip Getting Lucky 31 89%

Career Pathways Panel 22 63%

Fearless Presentations 33 94%

Job Offer Negotiation Strategies for STEM Careers 21 60%

Speakers

Jenkins Fellows, similar to MUST Scholars, agreed that the speakers were interesting (Figure H-1). One interesting difference is that Jenkins Fellows rated the Simon Bailey presentation much lower than did MUST Scholars (67 percent vs. 90 percent agreed or strongly agreed that the speaker was interesting).

Figure H-1: Percentage of participants agreeing that the speakers were interesting

0 0

20

0

6

0

6

13

13

9

14

56

27

47

40

86

38

40

40

45

0 20 40 60 80 100

Closing

Fleming

Bailey

Thursday Dinner

Overall

Percent



Workshops

Jenkins Fellows, similar to MUST Scholars, agreed that the workshops were interesting (Figure H-2).

As shown in Table H-2, Jenkins Fellows rated Job Offer Negotiation Strategies and Career Planning as the most useful workshops. These are the same two workshops that MUST Scholars found most useful. Fellows did not attend the two workshops that MUST Scholars found the least useful.

Figure H-2: Percentage of participants agreeing that the workshops were interesting

Table H-2: Percentage of Jenkins Fellows ranking each workshop as most and least useful

RANK

Session name Session presenter Day

Three MOST useful

sessions

Three LEAST useful

sessions

88% 6% Job Offer Negotiation Strategies Jensen Sunday

69% 6% Career Planning Wong Friday

25% 38% Fearless Presentations Patnaude Saturday

6% 81% Career Pathways Panel Dr. Greene, Moderator Friday

Jenkins Fellows’ Opinions of the Social Activities Jenkins Fellows liked the balance of Symposium activities between formal presentations and social activities (Table H-3). They also rated the networking activities (except for the Thurs-day night event) as more useful than did MUST Scholars (Figure H-3).

5

16

1

0

20

0

3

2

48

19

53

29

27

65

43

70

0 20 40 60 80 100


Career Planning



Percent



Table H-3: Jenkins Fellows’ ratings of Symposium activity balance


Strongly agree

There was a good balance of social activities and more formal presentations to help me develop my professional skills and to meet other MUST scholars.

0% 8% 54% 38%

Figure H-3: Percentage of Jenkins Fellows rating social activities as helpful in making new connections or deepening their connections with other MUST scholars

10

0

33

10

23

25

10

54

42

70

23

0

0 20 40 60 80 100

OSM CityWalk

Kennedy Space Center

Thursday evening networking

Percent


motivating undergraduates in science and technology (must) · fearless presentations career...

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