Thank you for your interest in participating in our mentoring research project. We know that young adults who are blind often have difficulty finding employment. We are conducting a research project to see if pairing students who are blind with successful mentors in their career fields who are blind will help. In order to examine this, some students who participate in this project will be paired with mentors and others will be provided with resources relating to career development.

If you are selected as a mentor, you will work with a student and participate in activities including: helping your mentee develop career goals, providing job shadowing experiences, training in job search skills, providing job placement assistance and discussing employment issues specific to blindness. If selected as a mentor, you will be asked to participate in the project for approximately one year beginning on a date that is determined based on your student's expected graduation date. If eligible, your potential involvement will occur during January 2014-January 2015.

We would first like you to provide contact information so that we can give you more information about the program. Additionally, we would like to ask you some questions to assess your eligibility to participate in this program.

Participation in this survey will take approximately 10-15 minutes. The information you provide will be confidential and only research staff associated with the project will have access to the information. There is no risk to participation in the project. Benefits of participating in this project include the potential to mentor a college or graduate student who is blind and the opportunity to assist in research that seeks to benefit the blind community.

Your participation is voluntary and you may refuse to answer specific questions, refuse to participate at all, or withdraw your participation at any time. If you have questions about this study, you can contact Dr. Jamie O'Mally at 1-800-675-7782 or the MSU Regulatory Compliance Office at 662-325-5220.