Recently, I’ve taken devoted time outside of designing business networks for investors, lawyers and corporate professionals, to talk with two high schools about creating a network of parents and alumni that mentor students professionally. The mentoring includes summer or school-year internships, take-a-child-to-work day; classroom lectures and in-school business projects.
The premise is that parents of the students are a tremendous but usually under-organized resource for helping all children in the school explore jobs, gain introductory business experience and build their professional resume in preparation for college and beyond. In the current economy, it’s especially difficult for aspiring young professionals to acquire opportunities professional learning and work, whether it’s in graphic design, architecture, veterinary skills, green jobs, social causes, etc. And there are many parents willing to give some flexible amount of time, even if (in a private school situation) ability to give money is constrained these days.
A Social Network for High School Parents and Students
Such a career connection program has strong characteristics related to successful, online-faciliated communities: it’s a private or pre-screened network, where each ‘provider’ (a parent) has a strong possibility for benefit (to their own children), and profile information is easy to represent and share. You can even think of social networking features like discussion groups and fan clubs, where talk about a career path or business project is shared.
The idea of an organized parent / alumni / student social network, documented in a skills- and willingness-to-help database, and supported by school staff to ensure quality, is apparently not that common, given my conversations with a sample of educational professionals and online research. The basic idea is straightforward but there are a number of hurdles to address. I welcome feedback from readers about schools that have such programs or want to pilot them.
Lots of Ways to Mentor
Here’s the concept: the school staff/board/PTA ask parents to volunteer information about their profession and company background (e.g. solo practitioner or corporate, location) and opt-in to any of the following: a willingness to speak to students occasionally on the phone; present at a class; help run a short professional project at the school or be a judge of a business contest; take a student to work for a day or a week; or offer a full-blown internship. Parents are strongly motivated to participate, time permitting of course, because they want their own child to have a skill-developing, resume-building professional opportunity and because their relatively small circle of friends may not have something immediate to ‘swap’ among their kids. Students have some access to the database, possibly with staff intermediation (or with certain contact information hidden) and after some screening to ensure true commitment, are put in touch with a parent relevant to their interests.
Yes, but…
The hurdles to address are several, the greatest being ensuring the quality of the experience for everyone involved. Parents who invest time in students don’t want it wasted through an excess of calls or investment in students that aren’t committed to working hard and learning. The students are looking to internships for real learning experiences, not making copies. Other considerations include how to measure the return on investment to the school for managing the program, prioritization of student requests, and ensuring parents’ data privacy.
Moving Forward…
The above challenges can be addressed, primarily through careful design of the program with school staff, and a selection of parents and students, plus careful screening and monitoring of quality, at least until a culture of mutual commitment to success is created. I’ll be exploring this program idea further with the school and welcome ideas and collaboration. At minimum, a school/parent/student network is a positive, self-sufficient, democratizing alternative to a trend of better-off families paying firms thousands of dollars to set up internships for their children.
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