Ms. Melissa Dattalo Melissa Dattalo is a medical student at JHU’s School of Medicine. She was an active participant in the Incentive Mentoring Program (IMP). IMP includes Johns Hopkins University, Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School and the East Baltimore Community. The foundation of the program is two-fold: Johns Hopkins medical and graduate student volunteers tutor and mentor Dunbar students on a weekly basis and help guide the students in organizing and participating in service projects to benefit the East Baltimore community. As director for recruitment, she was responsible for recruiting 80 new tutors. In 2006, each student was assigned a tutor as an IMP parent to guide them through the college application process. Melissa volunteered to parent two students, Tynecia and Greg, both initially refused to apply to college. Tynecia and Greg are polar opposites and required an enormous amount of attention. One has a tremendous amount of energy while the other suffers from depression. Melissa also spent over 200 hours, while in her third year of medical school, guiding Tynecia and Greg through the process. Melissa played a critical role in helping to change the lives of Tynecia and Greg. She helped them to create targeted lists of schools which they would apply. She helped Tynecia organize her thoughts in a focused manner. Greg, on the other hand, was able to uncover and express to her some of the secrets about his childhood which had caused many of his behavioral problems. Because of her dedication and commitment to excellence, these two students that weren’t interested in college have received offers from five universities (Tynecia), nine universities (Greg) and scholarships in the amount of $60,000 (Tynecia) and $120,000 (Greg) to pursue higher education. Melissa, because of your dedication and commitment to diversity and inclusiveness, we say thank you and Congratulations. Return to the awards page
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