October 19, 2015
Dear Colleagues:
We are ecstatic to invite you to host a Baltimore City high school student during the summer of 2016 at no financial
cost through the Diversity and Academic Advancement Summer Institute (DAASI). DAASI is a partnership
between the Office for Student Diversity at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Thread, a non-profit
organization, with student stipends being provided in partnership with the Mayor’s office.
Thread engages underperforming Baltimore City high school students by providing each of them with a committed
family of up to 8 volunteers and increased access to community resources. Please see attached capstone projects
from some of last year’s DAASI students. Thread volunteers are primarily from Johns Hopkins' undergraduate,
Public Health, Nursing, Medicine, and PhD programs.
While Thread engages students for 10 years and provides them with year-long support, the goal of DAASI is to
provide students with exposure to diverse career opportunities during the summer. The goals of the program are
three fold:

Visualizing Success: Expose students to science, health, educational, and professional pathways so that
they may visualize the possibility of pursuing careers in these fields.

Service, Life Skills, and Teamwork: Create opportunities for participants to learn important life and
professional skills through work opportunities and service learning experiences.

Academic Assistance: Provide a comprehensive, engaging curriculum to bolster students’ academic selfconfidence and capabilities in preparation for the upcoming school year.
Your role is critical to the successful attainment of the first two goals. With your participation, all students are able
to have exposure to rigorous work environments in biomedical research and medicine ranging from clinical,
laboratory, translational, or educational research, hospital quality improvement, public health initiatives, and/or
practicums.
DAASI typically takes place from late June to the end of July. Our role is to work with you to develop a plan to
supervise, support, coach, and guide the student throughout this experience. This may include placing a high
achieving undergraduate active Thread volunteer with you also at no cost. The undergraduate’s role will be to
provide additional support in mentoring the student. Typically the student works from 5 to 6 hours each day of the
week, but we are happy to tailor or adjust the hours to best meet your needs and availability.
To help facilitate the placement, we interview each student and assess their academic readiness, professionalism,
and career/academic interests. Additionally, we have organized a seminar to increase your understanding of the
entire experience and help you to begin planning to host a student. Please sign up for the seminar using the form
below. If you are unable to attend one of the seminars, we can meet with you individually.
If you are interested in exploring the opportunity to support a Baltimore City high school student, please complete
this form by November 2, 2015.
We welcome any questions, comments, or ideas. Please don’t hesitate to contact either of us.
Sincerely,
Daniel Teraguchi, Ed.D.
Co-Director, DAASI
Assistant Dean, Student Affairs
Director, Office for Student Diversity
Assistant Professor, Pediatrics
School of Medicine
dteraguchi@jhu.edu
Nick Greer
Manager Director of Programs
Thread
nick.greer@thread.org
443-794-3573
410-614-8759