SI graduate student Lisa Rysso worked at the Aspen Institute's Washington D.C. office with Karen Doyle, Director of Special Projects in the Institute's Economic Opportunities Program.

The Economic Opportunities Program exists to conduct research on ways to encourage the development of underserved populations, as well as small businesses owned by disadvantaged individuals. The project Lisa worked on, which is currently in the conceptual stage, is called MicroMentor. This will involve establishing a web site that will allow mentoring opportunities between disadvantaged micro-entrepreneurs and successful business owners. The web site will include online training for both mentors and mentees, an online application process, a database that will accept application information and automatically perform possible mentor/mentee matches, chat board forums, access to legal and accounting advice, etc.