Smart Futures is excited to kick off the 2009-2010 school year! We have four innovative, web-based programs for you to check out, especially Financial Literacy 101. It’s FREE!
Posts Tagged career education
David Mosey, our executive director, made this great video for Keys2Work! Are you up to the test?
Coro Pittsburgh, a nonprofit organization looking to advance effective leaders who are committed to civic engagement, has posted a piece about our eMentoring program on their blog! Here is a short segment from the article, written by Allison Quinn.
The choices I was up against, like choosing a profession, looked so ominous because I didn’t know how to face them. After talking to someone who had experience with these types of decisions, I felt more capable and up to the challenge to deal with future professional choices intelligently. That is why eMentoring is such a great program, because the program allows adults to mentor high school students in an intimidating and pivotal time in their lives, and help them tackle the future with confidence and intelligence.
Read the rest of the article here.
As many of you are aware, during this 2008-9 academic year Smart Futures piloted the rollout of a “souped up” version of our PA eMentoring program, an online college and career mentoring program for high school students that has the potential to engage large numbers of employers, high schools, and community based organizations in an easy, fun process that yields personalized College and Career Plans for 500 participating mentees.
Central to the project’s success is the adaptation of a 10-module curriculum, aligned to the PA Academic Standards for Career Education and Work, that guides the communication between mentor and mentee, as well as technology upgrades that allow for sophisticated program monitoring and built-in program evaluation.
Key partners in the project include 27 schools districts/schools including Pittsburgh Public Schools, 200 employers including UPMC, American Eagle, and Highmark, and intermediaries the Pittsburgh Regional Compact and the Mentoring Partnership. A full list of participating schools and employers is available at www.pa-ementor.org. The pilot is being supported by local funders including Pittsburgh Foundation, Highmark Healthy High Five Foundation, Buhl Foundation, Grable Foundation, BYN Mellon, Benedum Foundation, Duquesne Light and NexTier.
The pilot has sought to address the core obstacles inherent with expanding traditional mentoring programs: Could enough mentors be recruited? Would mentors see the online relationship as meaningful? Could the mentoring program be implemented easily within a classroom? Would the curriculum enhance the quality and flow of communication? Would the mentee perceive their relationship with their mentor as valuable? Could the process be monitored and evaluated to assure quality outcomes?
I am happy to report that the 2008-9 PA eMentoring rollout is meeting its major goals. Over 500 students have been matched one-to-one with mentors and during a 10-12 week process they have together discussed core issues related to college and career success. The conversations and activities have lead to the creation of a personalized college and career plan for each mentee.
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