Mayo Clinic—The Land Of Hope & Opportunity

              We, as the Student and Teacher Education Enhancement Program (STEEP) participants, feel compelled to express our gratitude towards Mayo Clinic for empowering us with the opportunity to realize our full potential by providing us with the essential skills and resources that we need to fulfill our dreams.  STEEP was a four week interactive program offered in the summer of 2008.  The program included high school students and teachers from Century High School.  The program exposed students to Mayo Clinic and health care careers.  Teachers learned about new technology and research methods.  The experience included tours, shadowing professional staff, formal lectures, lab experiences, small group discussions and case studies.

Throughout the STEEP, we gleaned values & ideals, established networking, developed intellectual skills, and acquired the fortitude and the audacity to overcome obstacles with which life presents. Every day, we hold the value of learning to broaden our knowledge base and build our self-esteem. The countless Mayo staff including the teachers that we had the opportunity to collaborate with, provided us the necessary tools and networking we needed to establish our presence in our community. We finally acquired the confidence that we need to raise our hands during our classes at school to ask questions whenever we needed clarification. Most importantly, we were able to acquire the fortitude and the audacity that we need to overcome obstacles in life. We learned to turn every situation into a positive experience. As our mentors explain, “the hardships, struggles, and the experiences you receive in life shapes the course of your life, but what you have done with those experiences is what defines who you are.” So, you can either let adversity hurt you or toughen you. We choose to embrace adversity. And it was through the Student and Teacher Education Enhancement Program that we were able to obtain the ability to learn, to train, and to apply the skills that we were able to acquire.

We thank our teachers, our mentors, our principal, and most importantly, Mayo Clinic for providing the water fountain that provides us with the countless opportunities to learn, to grow, to strive, and to give back to our community and our school. Thank you Mayo Clinic for representing the land of hope and opportunity. Thank you!

—Awale Osman