Richard A. Palma BS, ACS, RCS, RDCS, FSDMS, FASE, and Madeline Jankowski, RDCS, BS (May 2017)

Richie: Last year, the Sonographer Council decided to implement a mentorship program for new speakers presenting at the ASE Annual Scientific Sessions in Seattle, WA. I was asked to work with Madeline Jankowski, RDCS. Personally, it was one of the most rewarding and gratifying experiences that I have ever had. Madeline is an extremely intelligent and personable young sonographer. I loved working with her and discussing her cases and PowerPoint slides. I presented in the same session and watched her do such an amazing job that it made me feel so proud and honored to have mentored her.

Madeline: It was such a gift to have the mentorship program in place for my first year of speaking at ASE! As much as I enjoy speaking to an audience of my peers, this was by far the largest and most diverse audience I have had. After my topic was presented to me, I received an email that I would be assigned a mentor, and that he or she would reach out to me. Soon after, Richie contacted me by email so we could set up a time to talk about my presentation. He was so flexible with his time, which was helpful since we were across the country from each other! It was nice to introduce myself to someone who had once been in my shoes as a new faculty member. When preparing my speech, I felt confident in the content and the topic, but I wasn’t sure how to present some of my ideas. Richie was there to bounce ideas off of, even down to how to word some of my statements. I wanted to make sure I sounded like I belonged at this national conference!

After I had finished my first draft of the presentation, we set up a system for him to look over my echo images and what I was going to say. Echo school provides you with a lot of knowledge on how to do an echo and how to interpret it, but it does not set the stage to teach others in an informative but interesting way. Richie guided me by cutting a lot of my slides at first and sharing wisdom that people want to hear me speak , not just read off of a slide. I had seen this many times before, watching my mentors and peers present before me. I wanted to make sure and cover all the information, and Richie helped teach me how to use my images to tell the story.

Richie also helped guide which images I should use for my presentation. It helped having a second pair of eyes that has seen the image quality and quantity used at many meetings before this. This guidance helped me seek out the best studies from my institution.

Lastly, Richie supported me and my ideas throughout this entire experience, from the first phone conversation to being there while I presented. He provided encouragement and acclamation, which led me to present my talk with confidence and ease. I couldn’t thank him enough for his help!

This mentorship program helped me transition from attendee to faculty without a hitch. It was so great to get feedback from such an experienced ASE faculty member as well as gain a friend. Not only was it valuable to build my presenting skills, but it also helped me achieve goals in networking as well. I had such a great experience with this new program.

Richie: There were approximately a dozen new speakers paired with ASE sonographer mentors for the Scientific Sessions in 2016, and because of the program’s success, the ASE Sonography Steering Committee plans to continue the program to foster and improve new speakers. The ASE Sonography Steering Committee and the Scientific Session Committee would also like to thank all of the mentors that dedicated their time and expertise to this new outstanding program.

Richard A. Palma BS, ACS, RDCS, RCS, FSDMS, FASE is the Director and Clinical Coordinator at The Hoffman Heart and Vascular Center of Connecticut, School of Cardiovascular Ultrasound. Madeline Jankowski, RDCS, BS (May 2017) works at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.