"I went everywhere with her, from meetings with corporate donors to the 'Night of 1,000 Gowns'--the biggest transvestite event in New York," Orfield says.

"It's really empowering to have a woman mentor. It makes it easier for me to envision myself in her role."

Orfield participated in the Harvard Internship Program in the past, but says staying with Messinger and getting one-one-one contact made the externship unique.

"One of the things the program has going for it is that you really follow the person all day. I spent time with her from 6 a.m. to when she got home at 9 or 10 at night," Orfield says.

March says the real-life programs offer an opportunity that until recently would have been impossible. "There has been a social upheaval that has enabled women to reach these levels and positions of power," March says of the field-work-oriented mentorship programs.

"These programs make clear to women students that they are part of an ongoing history."

Making Mentoring a Science

Yesterday afternoon Women in Science at Harvard Radcliffe (WISHR) and Radcliffe College cosponsored a brunch at Agassiz House. Fifteen female graduate students in the sciences met and mingled with undergraduate women in science concentrations.

"We only invited women graduate students because we wanted to talk about bringing balance into our lives--about dealing with challenges in their professions," says Adrianna B. Kripke '00, vice president of WISHR.

Kripke says graduate students often can better relate to undergraduates than senor Faculty members. WISHR is attempting to address the drop in female science students as a percentage of total graduate-school students, she says.

Exploring the paths female scientists followed in reaching their career goals is for many female students paramount in any mentor relationship.

Wilson, whose father worked in a research lab, recalled growing up in a house where chemists would come to dinner almost every night, but added that it "never dawned on me to be a chemist."

It was only at Newcombe College, part of Tulane University in New Orleans, that Wilson says she discovered the power of mentorship in terms of role-modeling.

"It was the very great importance of seeing women who had Ph.D.s--who had gone to grad school getting faculty positions--that made it seem not only possible for me to be a female chemist but also to get a Ph.D.," Wilson says. "Then it was really unusual for women to go on...to pursue their intellectual interests."

March compares the Radcliffe Science Alliance--a four-day program for entering female first-years--to inter-departmental science advising in the College.