ISM Weekly Report

This week in ISM the class was really flexible, in terms of what each individual student had to do. Our work load was determined by how far each of had progressed individually along with our own work loads. I spend the earlier half of the week, scouring the web in search of potential mentors. I established a list of about forty potential mentors, then I began to contact all of them, which was quite a tedious process. However a necessary one in my pursuit of knowledge. Then the waiting game ensued, this was an exercise in patience, as I knew I had to mindful and considerate of the busy schedules of others. The really fun part was after I received their response to my emails or phone calls. Here was were professionalism really came into play as I had to write emails to individuals that were willing to allocate some of the time out of their busy schedules to meet with me, and that meant a lot. In terms of professionalism developing correspondence over email or phone was really intriguing, because I realized the way I speak and the way I write and how I present myself matter all of the time and can greatly influence whether or not a potential mentor may allow me to interview them or not.