For Release: Oct. 19, 2004

Amber Marek

Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

(Phone: 321/867-2468)

KSC RELEASE: 81-04

KSC EMPLOYEES MENTORING LOCAL STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

Kennedy Space Center is joining the National Disability Mentoring Day
observance on Wednesday, Oct. 20, by providing local students with
disabilities an opportunity to spend a day with the KSC/Cape Canaveral Air
Force Station Family.  The event is in support of National Disability
Employment Awareness Month.

NASA civil service and contractor employees are matched with students and
take them to their work sites, providing hands-on, enriching experience for
the student. Students learn first-hand about different types of careers,
make the connection between school and work, and target career paths.

Employees selected to mentor a student attend a brief orientation presented
by the local Disability Mentoring Day coordinator and a member of the
Disability Awareness Action Working Group (DAAWG).  Students and mentors
will meet at 9 a.m. Wednesday during a Kick-off Celebration at the Florida
Space Authority.  The group will participate in an Estes rocket launch.

Goals of the event include providing internship and employment opportunities
for people with disabilities; promoting disability as a central component of
diversity recruitment for a more inclusive workforce; dispelling employers'
concerns about hiring people with disabilities; increasing confidence among
students and job seekers with disabilities; and launching a year-round
effort to foster mentoring opportunities, according to Cheryl Bartoszek, a
local Disability Mentoring Day coordinator.

Statewide, Disability Mentoring Day is supported by a collaborative effort
between The Able Trust and the Florida Division of Vocational
Rehabilitation, along with a Florida State Planning Committee.

National Disability Mentoring Day began in 1999 as part of a White House
effort to increase the profile of National Disability Employment Awareness
Month, celebrated every October.

For information about KSC DAAWG, visit:

http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/nasa-only/groups/daawg/index.htm

To learn more about Florida Disability Mentoring Day, visit the Able Trust
Web site:

www.abletrust.org

To learn more about National Disability Mentoring Day, visit:

http://www.dmd-aapd.org

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