My name is Kayla Gorman and I teach in the Environmental and Ocean Science Department. I am also the Bridging the Gap Program Director. Please forward the following to your faculty. The below is a request for USD faculty compensated participation in a high-impact STEM mentoring program for high school students (Response requested by Wednesday, 4/23).

Thank you!
Kayla Gorman
Bridging the Gap, Director
Environmental and Ocean Sciences, Adjunct Assistant Professor
kgorman@sandiego.edu

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Dear STEM Faculty,

I am the director for the Bridging the Gap program (commonly referred to as Mater Dei). This program is a high-impact STEM career engagement program for high school students to work with USD STEM faculty in the summer. Feedback from faculty regularly share how rewarding it is to work with these students, and it is an enormous benefit to the students in envisioning a career path in the STEM fields - Mater Dei students have gone on to declare majors in the STEM field in college, and we several wonderful success stories of Mater Dei students enrolling here at USD and joining the lab of the faculty mentor from their summer experience!

STAR/BURST decisions have finally gone out, so I'm hoping that you may be able to take on a Mater Dei student in your lab this summer. Mentoring a student in this program comes with a stipend for your participation, as well as funding for supplies. We currently have 3 more available spots for faculty mentorships this summer.

Please fill out THIS FORM to indicate your availability for the upcoming summer and provide a quick description that I can send to the students at Mater Dei. Responses appreciated by Wednesday, April 23rd.

I'm looking forward to hopefully working with you this summer!

Kayla