Raytheon Mentoring Project
The Raytheon Mentoring Project connects CTE students with work-based learning experiences with STEM mentors. In this partnership, students gain hands-on Real World Learning experiences with Raytheon culture and industry projects, as well as experience with virtual learning.
Connections to Real World Learning Roadmap
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Vision
Real World Learning provides all students with opportunities to connect and apply learning beyond the classroom in meaningful and authentic ways while engaging with experts in the field. We use Real World Learning to make learning more engaging and relevant for students, build their awareness of potential careers, and provide work-based learning and mentoring experiences. We believe that our students need exposure to a business community that prepares them for life beyond primary and secondary school.
Implementation: How We Did It
We have partnered with Raytheon Technologies and MENTOR Rhode Island (a national organization with many local chapters) to have direct one-on-one mentorship for 30 students with 30 Raytheon professionals in STEM careers. Mentors serve as positive adult role models, providing one-on-one support, motivation, and guidance to students. Prior to COVID-19, the program took place at the Raytheon offices in Portsmouth, R.I. For the remainder of the 2020 school year, the program will continue virtually through Zoom. Meetings occur weekly and cover a variety of topics, from resume-building and networking, to discussions on the pathways to take to become engineers. This has been wonderful for students who are at home during this time.
Related Resources
Community Partners
Curriculum
Measures
Professional Learning
Community Partners
The Career Coordinator for Bristol Warren works with the human resources director and the director of the local chapter of MENTOR Rhode Island to plan and execute all aspects of this program. With support from MENTOR Rhode Island, the mentors at the Raytheon campus are selected from an application pool. The mentors and mentees are matched based on an interest survey and career field. As the program continues to evolve throughout the remainder of the current school year (as a result of having to adjust from in-person to virtual connections), so does our thinking about how to navigate and maintain our relationship with both partners. We are continuing to meet weekly to co-design the program.
Curriculum
Mentoring is consistent with our approach to Real World Learning. In the case of the Raytheon project, STEM professionals serve as the mentors. This program was developed to provide our CTE Pre-Engineering students with Real World Learning experiences and meet the 80-hour work-based learning requirement from the state of Rhode Island.
Measures
We are piloting in 2020, with the intention of expanding the program and embedding it into the school structure for many years to come. We had initially hoped to recruit 6-8 students for the pilot, but student interest was so high that we currently have 30 students participating. Raytheon and Mount Hope High School have already discussed continuing to recruit mentors every fall, so that new students can join the program. We would like to see mentorships continue from freshmen year through senior year. Based on their previous mentoring programs, MENTOR Rhode Island reports that a vast majority of teachers, parents, mentors, and mentees report high satisfaction levels with the program. There is also evidence of improved academic and social indicators for mentees.
Professional Learning
MENTOR Rhode Island supports a statewide network of 57 mentoring programs, serving 32 cities and towns. They provide mentor training on best practices for mentoring (“The Elements of Effective Practice”). Prior to the start of our program, they also trained mentees on best practices regarding communication.
Support Structures
For this program to come to fruition, it was essential to have MENTOR Rhode Island as a partner. They helped with recruitment, distributed the applications, trained mentors and mentees, and matched participants based on applications. They have also provided general advocacy for mentoring. They are able to provide these programs through an in-house grant from the National Mentoring Partnership.
The Future of this Work
As this program moves from an in-person partnership to a virtual program in the coming months, it will be important for us to navigate the new landscape for both students and mentors to make it as successful as possible and to ensure its longevity and future.
