SIENA Catholic College, Sippy Downs, has introduced a mentorship program pairing students with mentors from their choice of future career.
The mentor program, called “Connecting to Careers” (C2C), introduces Year 10 students interested in particular careers with successful professionals working in those fields.
Learning enrichment co-ordinator Julie Bolton said C2C was part of a new extension elective being offered by the college called Program Challenge aimed at providing for the individual learning needs of those Year 9 and 10 students who require extension beyond the regular curriculum for their age.
The four components of Program Challenge were the C2C mentor program; an “Independent Project”, where students chose their own project to conduct over one semester; “Futures Problem Solving”, an enrichment program designed to challenge and extend bright, young minds; and “Thinking About Thinking”, where students investigate how people learn, discover some neuroscience and learn how they can exercise their brain to think more creatively to solve problems.
Mrs Bolton said 19 students already had been paired with professionals, through C2C, including a solicitor, physiotherapist, general practitioner, pharmacist, teacher, web designer, interior designer and businessman-entrepreneur.
She said C2C allowed students to gain a “real world” insight into their areas of interest.
The students will have regular on-line communication with their mentors to discuss subject choices, tertiary study, career options and in some cases may have opportunities to visit their workplaces.
“It is a fantastic opportunity for the students to access years of knowledge and expertise accumulated by these mentors,” she said.
At an inaugural meeting, students interviewed mentors about their exact job descriptions and their employment history, as well as finding out a little about each other’s interests outside of school and work.
Students follow up with one lesson a week to communicate with their mentors either on-line or face-to-face at the college.
During this time students will interview their mentors about many aspects of study, university, career paths and mentors may also assist with the Independent Project which is often linked to the field of endeavour in which they work.
Mrs Bolton said finding mentors had been a big task but members of the college and local community had been supportive of the concept and were happy to share their time, knowledge and experience with the students.
“The students have been so inspired by their mentors. It is an absolute pleasure to read their on-line transcripts which are so positive and encouraging,” she said.
“Students have been very motivated by the fact that these busy people are prepared to make time to help them.”
The C2C program will run for six months finishing with a presentation night at which the Year 10 students will showcase their chosen career as well as their Independent Project.
Program Challenge will be extended to Year 9 students in the second semester.
