Monarch Digital

STEMWorks Online Mentoring

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When you were in high school, how did you decide what you’d like to pursue as a career? How did you know that you’d like what you’d choose? Who did you talk to? The BETR Project has an answer.

The BETR Project recognized that there was a communication gap between high school students in the state of Colorado and business leaders in a wide variety of fields. This chasm prevented young people from exploring real career choices and potentially making poor career choices.

Perhaps the student and their family don’t know anyone in, for example, marine biology. Perhaps the student is located in a less-populated portion of the state and geography is preventing this interaction.

As part of the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, The BETR Project used Monarch Digital to design and develop and online mentorship web application called STEMWorks. “STEM” stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.

Working through local workforce centers throughout the state, counselors, teachers and workforce center personnel encourage high school students to apply to the system as a “protege”. Working through numerous organizations, The BETR Project recruits and screens business leaders as “mentors”.

Mentors make mentorships available specializing in their specific career areas, ranging from engineering to human resources. Proteges search through the mentorships available and select a mentorship that allows them to explore a potential career field.

The online anonymous interactions between the mentor and protege are one-on-one and purely between the two of them, but all conversations are monitored by STEMWorks administrators.

At this writing, the STEMWorks application is just entering beta testing. Many students are lining up to explore career options and their future.

As the STEMWorks site is an invitation-only system, the video below gives you a glimpse into online mentoring from both the mentor and the protege.