Students Beyond the Inspire Program
The Inspire program provides eye-opening opportunities to help high schoolers see what they are capable of accomplishing in medicine and engineering. Recent Minneapolis Southwest graduates Maisa Ali and Georgia Rinkleff-Duma know this first hand.
In 2019, Maisa snuck into the Inspire Conference as a freshman when the event was limited to 10th-12th graders. “When I learned that the conference was meant for only upperclassmen and thought I wasn’t allowed to go, I just kept talking to my robotics club mentor and he finally gave me the green light at the very last minute. I remember having to split out of class to call my mom that day to ask her to come to school early to sign my permission slip.” Maisa had always been attracted to medicine, partly because of her brother who lives with Type 1 Diabetes. She knew of some career paths in medicine but never thought beyond the work of a doctor.
Georgia attended the same Inspire Conference as a sophomore. Growing up, she was interested in engineering, but never saw it as a career. “I’ve always been into science, and problem-solving comes naturally to me – that’s why I joined the robotics team, I just like to create things. But I never really thought of engineering as a career because I want to do something that helps others.”
Both Georgia and Maisa left the conference with wider perspectives on what they could accomplish.
“When you think of medicine, you just think of doctors and nurses in hospitals, but Inspire helped me see the people behind the scenes. For me, the Conference broadened my horizon and the way I thought of myself,” says Maisa. “It helped me create goals for my future and want to aim high. Hearing from those speakers from the University and companies motivated me and boosted my confidence. Especially being a black woman at a predominately white school, the people I met at the Conference really helped build my confidence and see myself accomplishing things I never thought of before.”
For Georgia, the Inspire Conference was the first time she got to see medicine through the lens of technology. “I got to see medical engineering, I mean right there in practice and first-hand before my eyes,” says Georgia. “It was so cool to see all these professionals come and talk about the connections and paths they took from high school to college to accomplish what they have done. It definitely made a difference with what I want to do in life.”
After the program, Georgia immediately started thinking of ways for her school to gain more experiences like Inspire. While schooling via zoom during the first year of the Covid pandemic, Georgia reached out to Ken Rosen, IEM Head of Industry and Outreach Programs. With the help from Rosen and Inspire program co-directors Rhonda Franklin and Chris Pennell, Georgia was able to help IEM start the InspireTalks program, where professionals from academia and industry meet with students through Zoom, talk about their academic and career journeys, and help them know more about the various paths in STEM.
Because of the Inspire Conference and InspireTalks, Georgia and Maisa are now pursuing biomedical engineering in college: Georgia as a rising sophomore at the University of Minnesota, and Maisa as an incoming freshman at Harvard University. “If it wasn’t for the Inspire program,” says Maisa “we wouldn’t be pursuing BME in college or even know what it looks like in real life. We are so grateful to have had that kind of experience that was so life changing at a young age.”
