Program Name: Senior Mentorship Program
Nominator's Name: Pamela J. MacNeil
Title: Mentorship Coordinator
Address: Newman Springs Road
City/State/Zip: Lincroft NJ 07738
Nominator's Telephone Number: 732-842-8444 ext 2049
Organization: High Technology High School
Address: Newman Springs Road
City/State/Zip: Lincroft NJ 07738
List of Community Partners: AT&T, Lucent, Brookdale Community College, International Flavors & Fragrances, French & Parrello, Red Bank Animal Hospital, Mitre, Monmouth University, Monmouth County Park System, Telos Communication, Rutgers University
The nominated program focuses on the following grade level or area: High School
District:  Monmouth County Vocational Schools
County: Monmouth
Address: 41 Highway 34 South
City/State/Zip: Colts Neck NJ 07722
District Superintendent: Dr. Brian McAndrew
District Telephone Number: 732-431-7942
Date of Program Initiation: 1993

The Senior Mentorship Program (SMP) is an integral part of High Technology High School. All seniors participate for one semester in the SMP. Students are placed in work environments that match their potential career interests. The entire process, from resume writing, interviewing, work performance and evaluation, is supervised both by school and on-site professionals. For example, in the school year 1999-2000, 58 students were placed in over 40 different settings including: mechanical engineering firms, animal hospitals, architectural firms, Lucent and AT & T, brain research, law offices and the Monmouth County Prosecutors Office. It is felt that through these intensive real-world work experiences, students will come to make better informed decisions about future career directions, as well as having the opportunity to support their academic learning in an actual work setting.

GOALS

The SMP is closely aligned with the NJ Core Curriculum Content Standards in the area of Career Planning and Workplace Readiness.

Standard 1: All students will develop career planning and workplace readiness skills.

Since the SMP is a workplace based experience students are required to learn and exhibit all skills
necessary to seek and maintain jobs. They must identify their interests and potential job placements. Students then write a resume, personally contact the potential employer, go on a face to face interview and sign an employment contract. Once "employed," they are responsible for attendance, behavior, daily experience logs, and high-level work performance. In fact, they are treated and must act as an employee rather than a student.

Standard 2: All Students will use information, technology and other tools.

It is a requirement of the SMP that each participant spend at least one third of their time using technology at the mentorship site. Because SMP students come from a technologically sophisticated high school, their technology skills typically exist at a high level. In less technologically oriented mentorships, students are expected to use their talents to enhance the technology of the site (designing websites, creating databases, networking, and Internet usage). At sites that employ a higher level of technology, students are expected to integrate what they already know and to learn new technologies and systems available at the mentorship. Finally, all this technological emphasis is brought together with the multimedia presentation that each student must present at the end of the mentorship.

Standard 3:All students will use critical thinking, decision making and problem-solving skills.

The core of the program is the student's participation with the mentor and members of the team on site in a specific project. All of the critical thinking, decision making and problem solving normally done at these worksites are an integral part of the student's daily mentorship experience.

Standard 4: Students will demonstrate self-management skills.

The SMP mentorships require tremendous initiative o n the part of the students. They are

responsible for transportation, communication with the mentors, and in fact, every element of the job that they have accepted. They are required on a daily basis to interact with a variety of individuals in the organization in order to complete their project. Interpersonal skills, communication skills, organizational skills are all a part of the workplace. The ability to give and receive feedback is essential, as well as to identify those aspects that are part of their job and those that are not. The mentorship coordinator coaches the students in these elements prior to and during their mentorship experience.

Standard 5: All students will apply safety principles.

Just as safety procedures and concerns are emphasized in their high school labs and classrooms, students are required to know safety procedures and issues at their particular workplace. Whether this involves a specific project procedure or larger OSHA requirements, the receiving site is asked to assume responsibility for training the student in proper safety principles.

ACTIVITIES

In school year 1999-2000, there were 58 students participating in the SMP placed in approximately 40 different community and corporate settings. In their junior year, all students receive an SMP information packet, student interest form, resume format guide, and a sampling of previous mentorship placements. At this point, potential mentorship students and their parents attend an informational seminar conducted by the SMP coordinator. Once their student interest form and typed resume are completed, individual placement interviews are held leading to a decision about a choice of mentorship setting. Students are then instructed in proper procedure for an initial phone contact to set up a formal interview with the mentor. This interview between student and mentor results in a signed contract that specifies goals, expectations and work duties.

Once the mentorship begins, students must be at the workplace for a minimum of hours per week. Typically, this takes place two mornings per week for approximately 16 weeks. The student works under the direct supervision of his or her mentor. Decisions regarding project selection, student progress and future goals are typically discussed at the beginning of each day. The SMP coordinator makes a minimum of one on-site visit to speak with the mentor and observe the student at work. The coordinator is also available to students and parents to discuss an); problems or issues that may arise. Students are totally responsible for transportation, dress code conformance, and notifying school and mentor when sick and are required to attend mentorship even when school is not in session. In general, students are expected to act as if they were an employee of the company at which they work.

Approximately one month prior to the end of the mentorship, the SMP coordinator and a technology teacher meet with the students to discuss their final multimedia presentation. The criteria for this presentation, specific reference to the background of the company, position of the mentor, project goals and activities, problems and solutions, accomplishments, and the student's evaluation of the project is then reviewed. This 15-minute presentation is given to an audience composed of parents, faculty, administration and mentors and constitutes 30% of their grade. The SMP coordinator additionally evaluates the presenter in terms of appearance and delivery, use of technology in the presentation, depth of knowledge, and presentation structure. The remainder of the student's grade is a written evaluation by the mentor (50%), daily logs and timesheets (10%), and written self evaluation encompassing the whole mentorship(l0%). Students also receive written criteria for this self-evaluation.

OUTSIDE RESOURCE

The most obvious outside resources are the mentorship placement organizations themselves. Not only do the mentors volunteer their time and expertise in supervising students, but also they serve as a valuable referral source for new mentorship placements. Many mentors write college recommendations for their students and hire ex-mentorship students for paying summer jobs. Brookdale Community College with which we are affiliated with provides tremendous support to this program

EVALUATION

The impact of this program on the students is immeasurable. First, it provides them with a unique
opportunity to sample careers and the workplace environment before entering college. This allows them to make much better informed decisions about schools and courses of study when they apply to college. In addition, this experience allows them to integrate their high school coursework in a real life setting including writing, technology, science and presentation skills. Finally, their participation in this unique type of experience has aided HTHS students in successfully competing for acceptance to high caliber college programs.

The teaching staff benefit in a number of ways from association with this program. The mentorship students create a feedback loop between the classroom and cutting edge applications of their learning experiences. Whether they use classroom knowledge and resources to benefit the mentorship projects or vice versa, a very powerful learning community has been established. This reinforces classroom learning for all students at the high school. The participating organizations are rewarded by receiving enthusiastic, highly motivated, non-paid workers on their projects, and mentorship sites benefit from the extra resources that students bring with them. Students have designed and updated web-sites, set up computer networks, solved computer-related problems and done valuable research in many areas that lie outside the specific focus of the organization.

STABILITY

The SMP has been in existence for 7 years. It is coordinated by a teaching staff member who is provided with 9 hours weekly of preparation time solely devoted to this program within her teaching duties. In the course of its history the SMP has placed approximately 280 students in over 100 different sires. Due to the recognition of these students, participating mentorship organizations typically request more students on a yearly basis. Because all components (including funding) are housed within the school system, which is clearly committed to the program, the stability and growth of the SMP continues to be assured.

ENDORSEMENTS

All elements of the SMP express tremendous support and enthusiasm for the program. One mentor from AT & T responded on the evaluation form: "Since this was a new service, my team needed to provide a marketing service description (MSD) to the development community as a guide to them for service development. Dawn was the author of this document. She did research on the web to understand the technology. She met with members of my team and vendors to determine customer requirements and much more. The MSD is a role model document and we will be announcing the service at a trade show in Washington D.C. at the end of January 2000. " Another mentor from Westerman Research Associates wrote: "Neel contributed significantly to our organization. He set up a web site for us in its entirety. He also trained a staff member to edit it when necessary. The web-site incorporated our work with Rambam Medical Center in Israel and links to that site and also provides an interactive site for obtaining directions to our office. His work is highly professional and can be used 'as is' by our organization (we had received estimates for this work of $1000-2500)."

Parents are delighted with their children's participation. According to one parent, " My son's mentorship not only helped him decide to enter an engineering curriculum in college, but was instrumental in his acceptance to an excellent program with scholarship money included." These types of parental endorsements are universal.

The students love this part of their high school education, pointing out the value of SMP participation in helping them decide on career directions. This includes students whose career intentions were both reinforced and altered as a consequence of their experiences. They commonly point out that college admissions were` strengthened by this component of their education. Students often report that their friends in other high schools are envious of their experiences. One student wrote:" I felt my mentorship was perfect for me. I would not add or delete anything from the mentorship program. I am really glad that I was able to obtain practical work experience while I was in high school. It not only helped me gain knowledge about physical therapy, but colleges were really impressed that I had this experience.

The SMP enables all students to select and experience high-level work experiences in line with their individual interests and abilities. Their academic courses and formal educational experiences are reinforced and enhanced by this program. Our success is evident from numerous schools systems across the nation that have emulated the SMP. Imitation is the highest form of flattery.