KOPYA NG SALIN 🔗
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And welcome to Instruction Discussion, our weekly look at the
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latest topics and trends in education affecting schools here on
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Long Island and schools around the world. Whether you're a teacher, parent,
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or a student, listen for tips and strategies to help
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you navigate the educational landscape. There's a bell, it's time
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to start today's Instruction Discussion on the Voice of Nassau
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Community College ninety point three WHPC.
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Hello, I'm Kevin Boston Hill and welcome to Instruction Discussion,
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where each week we'll examine a recent trend or development
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in education and its impact on Long Island. While colleges
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are confident that they are preparing students for the workforce,
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many employers disagree. Recent Gallop research found that only eleven
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percent of C suite executives strongly believe college graduates have
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the skills needed for entry level jobs. That with the
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recent Sengauge Group twenty twenty five Graduate Employee Builder report
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that states only thirty percent of twenty twenty five college
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graduates found entry level jobs in their fields and over
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forty eight percent of graduates felt unprepared for the workforce.
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And we have an employability skills gap that has created
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the toughest entry level labor market in five years. One
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person who seeks to reverse this trend is Patty Alper,
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the founder of the Teach to Work Foundation. Through her
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project based mentoring program, students are paired with experienced professionals
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who help them solve real world problems, develop workplace skills,
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and gain practical experience beyond the classroom.
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MS.
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Alper, Welcome to instruction discussion on ninety point three WHPC.
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I am thrilled to be here, and what a perfect
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introduction I might s well leave said it all.
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Well, if that's the case, it's going to be a
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very quick show and I still have a lot of
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time to feel so hopefully we'll be able to do that.
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But thank you for that, and thank you for being
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here as well, because I know this is a very
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very important topic, especially in this political and economic climate
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that we are involved in. Because just listening to those
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numbers I just stated at the top those are that
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report is eye opening. So how do you explain or
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how can you explain that breakdown between the preparation that
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students receive in school and the skills they need to
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enter and succeed in today's workplace.
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Oh jeez, Well, I come at this as an employer.
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I'm not an educator. I'm an entrepreneur and I have
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hired students out of college. And honestly, if if you
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think about the structure of education, there's a miss when
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you're going to work. So some of the steps of
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doing projects, of overseeing leading a project of your own
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doing at an earlier age, like in school, Like I
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very much endorse project based learning, and I've kind of
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trademarked this term project based mentoring. But doing a project
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has a timeline. There's usually a hypothesis, there is a
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set of sort of research you have to go through,
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there's an implementation, there is things that go awry. Every
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kind of project there is a timeline associated with it.
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And in school, you know you're taking a test or
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you're learning to write a paper, which has a timeline,
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but it's different in the real world. You have to
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set up an interview, somebody sick, the material is incorrect,
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and you have to do that research and do that
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implementation and ultimately present it to either a consumer, a purchaser,
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or a boss. That's how the world really works. So
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I think there's kind of a miss sometimes in preparing
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students for the real world.
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And you know, I'm glad you said that, because I'm
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an educator and I'm a CAD to twelve primarily educated,
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So I have been preaching this for decades now. And
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one of the things, and I too, I'm a big
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proponent of or advocate of
Load full transcript
project based learning, but that's
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something that has been a tested strategy or in a
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trusted strategy in that CAA twelve setting. So what kind
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of I guess, what distinguishes your program project based mentoring
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from other mentorship approaches that are out there that people
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have going Because everybody says, all, I had a mentoring here,
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I had a mentor doing this and doing that. So
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how does project based mentoring, in the way that you
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have fashioned, in the way that you have built it,
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how does that differ from all the other types of
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mentoring that exists currently.
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Oh, there's a lot of ways it differs, but I
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don't have enough time to tell. I'll try to be brief.
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First of all, In my model, the student is the
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leader the student driven project, and I have mentor training.
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I've written a book about it, and I have a
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video training that employees from the mentoring companies can take
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and at the outset, everybody understands their role. There's an
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employee role a mentor role for that employee that clearly outlines.
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And I can tell you I have done this myself.
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I have been a mentor for twenty years with a
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program called a Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship. So I have
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an entrepreneurial background. I can give you an example with
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me with my mentees, and they actually were in high school,
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though this is also very relevant to college. But I
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would sit down with my students and this is what
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the training is inclusive of, and I would say to them, look,
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I have a lot of experience. I built a company
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from the ground up, blood, sweat and tears, hard hard work.
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I'm going to make some suggestions to you. But I'm
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not your boss. I'm not paying you, I have no
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authority over you. I'm not your minister, i'm not your parent.
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I am here to help you and I want to
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create a safe space. And if I suggest something and
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you don't like it, you can throw it out. This
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is your project. So I did this in the entrepreneurial space.
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Each student came up with their own idea of what
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they wanted to build. So the mentor's role is playing
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a devil's advocate, asking hard questions, maybe asking them to
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develop a budget. I find this is something I have
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found very very often, particularly in high schools. Students really
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don't know how to plan their time. And we could
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sit there and say, okay, let's map out what's going
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to get done about the time I return in two
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and a half three weeks. And I come back and
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nothing's done. So then I find I'm sitting there looking
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at their calendar and saying, Okay, you know we've developed
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together what you want to get accomplished. When are you're
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going to plug it in? And we take their calendar
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and actually plug in timelines for when they would accomplish
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this because there's a deadline. So the other sort of
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value of project based mentoring there's many. First of all,
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I think that we as professionals differ from teachers. They're
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out in the field and we've done it, so we len.
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I know this because I have probably I probably have
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three thousand letters from students that I've worked with, and
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when I tell them my sort of hard breakstory, hard
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hard story of building a company from nothing, and my
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steps I took. You know, they show respect and then
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they listen in a different way. I'm lending them my time.
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I don't want anything from them. So there's clearly defined roles.
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There's a sort of more of a motivation. Motivation, I
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believe sometimes and I've read this from the letters students say, gosh,
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if she could do that, I could do that. There's
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a transference. I've actually been with somebody who did their
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PhD defense on exactly this. They studied how mentorship affects students,
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and she actually was also in Kosovo. She did her
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whole PhD on this exact subject. And she said, these
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students and sort of live in place A, and they
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have their own experience, their own realm, and they see
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place B, but they have no idea how to get there.
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Like they might look at Obama or Beyonce or you
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know whoever that they look up to, but they're not
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normal people where they've heard their pains and their steps.
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And she said in her research that when they see
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this and hear it from somebody who's lived it, who's
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a regular person, and believe me, I don't look like
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or sound like these kids, but I've learned how to
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make myself accessible. And that's what I'm trying to teach,
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how to make a safe space so they begin to
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relate and find themselves looking at place B that they
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can reach. And the idea of building up plan together
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around the student's idea and making the mentors subordinated. That's
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the key elements of project based mentoring and that's what
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makes it, that's what makes it different.
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Yeah, and you know what, it's funny that you say,
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because as you are talking, I'm thinking that the project
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based learning model that is again that is we see
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that in schools all the time. That is exactly the
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model that you have just described through project based mentoring.
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Because in the project based learning model, the student comes
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up with the problem that they're that he or she
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is going to solve, and that therefore the teacher now
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becomes the guide on the side as opposed to the
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sage on the stage, so they have to kind of
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guide the student through the process of solving their own problem,
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going through going through the ups and downs and so forth.
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And what you have described is the exact same thing,
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but now we're doing it at a at a higher level,
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and where I guess we're also kind of solving that
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disconnect because, as you say, teachers work with curriculum, so
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they're teaching the theory of something, whereas whereas mentors are
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--> 00:12:18.240
operating from a mode of experience, and so they're giving
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you the practical aspects of what that theory is going
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to show you. And that's what students want. They want
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that hands on stuff because besides, isn't that what employers
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want when they go through the interview process. It's always
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behavioral based interviewing. So they want to know what have
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you done? Not just what you know, but you how
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have you applied that knowledge? And I think that's what
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this gives them.
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I'm going to add to this, Kevin. By having the
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mentor there, I'll say several things. I would say that
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the student's project will be better than it would have
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been without a mentor. They will be more professional, they
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will present more professionally, and they will excel. And if
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you think about anything, we start off in life, we
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all come from fear. We don't know how to do
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what it is we're starting to do. So having that
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sort of built in support system helps you over the hump. Lastly,
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when you go into a job interview, you're not talking
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from theory, you're talking from you've done it. I'd love
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to share with you one example. I wrote about this
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actually in an article for CEO magazine about a student.
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This sort of gives you a nice example at a
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mentor company. SAP was our mentoring company, and this was
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an entrepreneurship class with tech and each student was asked
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to build an app. And one student came up with
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this idea and it blew me away. This student, he
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was in high school at the time, and he wanted
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a sports app. He wanted to know in immediate time
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where soccer, baseball, basketball, football was being played in his community,
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where was the event, when was the event, and who won.
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So the SAP mentor helped logistically build the app, but
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the student gathered the data and went to the schools.
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But that app ended up getting sponsorships fast food sports authority.
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Think of the audience that they garnered from families and
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teachers and schools all wanted to know. It built a
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huge audience its share. So this kid it changed his
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whole trajectory of his life. He wanted to go into business.
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And I guarantee you had SAP not been there, it
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wouldn't have been quite as successful. But if you think
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about the skill sets that he has learned from building this,
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not only was he doing contracts and delivering on contracts,
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his idea was critical thinking, creating something that wasn't there
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before based on what he thought was missing. He was organized,
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he was forecasting, he was doing master planning. He figured
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out market penetration, he was collaborating with his mentor. He
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had grit, you know, he stuck with it, and then
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he had to stand up and present this know eating
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class and to his sponsors. So those are the skill
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sets that I'm trying to point out that he took away.
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And I guarantee you that kid is more hirable and
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he's going to sit in that interview and sell it.
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He's done it. He's done it. It's different than theory.
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It's different than writing a paper.
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You are listening to instruction discussion on the Voice of
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Nasal Community College ninety point three WHPC. My name is
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Kevin Boston Hill, and our guest today is Patty Alper,
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founder of the Teach to Work Foundation and creator of
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project based mentoring. Now, you are absolutely right about that
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that that young man is going to be able to
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sit in whatever interview, whether it's for a graduate school
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program or for a job or something, and be able
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to speak to the experiences what he has already accomplished,
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what he has done as proof that he is able
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to handle whatever the responsibilities are of the job that
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he's applying for. And that's what employers looking for. They
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want to know. How do I know, or how well
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I know that you're going to be able
to satisfy
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this job and I'm not going to have to worry
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about replacing you in six months totally.
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I mean, I understand it. I'm with you. I understand
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from the employer's point of view. I understand it from
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the teacher's point of view and the kid's point of view. Right.
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So the question is how do you get educators to
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open up and welcome. I mean, I'm trying to create
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a marriage. I mean, I've done extensive interviews with corporations.
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It's in my book, you know. I wrote this book
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called Teach to Work, and the opening chapter is major
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corporations that love mentoring. They want to do this, and
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that's a message I have to educators that companies benefit
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from this too. They want to build a pipeline just
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as much as schools do. But schools need to invite
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them in such a resource of willing, ready, willing and
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able partners who want to help build the next generation
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if only educated, which is sort of what I'm trying
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to do, is educate them on how to be a
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mentor with a sort of cross generationally to share their skills.
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This is not social and emotional mentoring. This is very
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skills based and tactical. And I also feel that this
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is a path for tech and engineer, you know, AI,
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I think it's all related and easy for employees to
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take on this because it's in their wheelhouse.
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I think you're absolutely right about that. And in fact,
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there are there's a whole cadre of schools, or in
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niche of schools that do this type of work anyway,
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the career and Technical education or CTE schools, where they
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do an hour or so, an hour and a half
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or so of theory where you're going to learn how
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to do things, and then you have another hour and
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a half two hours of actual practice where you're doing
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hands on So there's the marriage of the two. And
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from a traditional school perspective, the students who have been
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involved in those CTE programs have actually outperformed regular students
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when it comes to standardized exams, when it comes to
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those types of tests, because they're able to connect the
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theory to the practice, which now gives them that experience
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to be able to handle anything that comes their way.
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Totally, I'm in complete agreement. So how do you get
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how do you give students more experience while they're learning?
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How do they get experience before they get on the job.
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Well, now they have to get the they have to
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go through, whether the project based things that they have
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or someplace. Now, I know some schools have turned to simulations.
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They figure, let's give them a simulation because that's going
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to represent or replicate the real world environment. But I
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find that simulations can be skewed and manipulated to suit
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a particular student's need. So how do we therefore create
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that project or have students come up with that project
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that's going to really give them the experience that they need.
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You know, I've come up with I've talked with the people.
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It was formerly the Buck Institute. Now I have it
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on my website. It's sort of a resource for helping
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to design projects. Yep, there's so many kinds of projects
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that business people can take a mental role in doing,
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from developing websites and marketing and graphics, which is true
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in any kind of business, to this is very cool.
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In a Civics class, this was a really neat assignment.
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They had lawyers as mentors, and the class had to
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look up the county laws and find laws they disagreed with,
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and they had to write up what was wrong with
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the law and how they would change it. And they
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had input from their mentors, and the professor happened to
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know people in the state legislature, and they sent the
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whole packet of laws and suggested changes and do you
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know five laws got changed. Oh wow, So that's tactical
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and
real. And think how that class felt, know, making
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a real change.
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And I'm sure they, like you said, I'm sure they
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did feel empowered. Now and we and in a society
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where a lot of our young people don't feel that
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their vote counts for anything, and they're not making it,
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they don't have an impact on what happens to them.
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Now here's proof positive that they actually did have some
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kind of impact.
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Perfectly said.
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So let me let me ask you this before you
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move on. How do you or where do you find
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mentors for your program and how do you match them
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up with your students?
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Well, everybody has to cross that bridge. That is, there's
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not always an easy answer. So I helped build the
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mentor program for nifty. Okay I came. I came at
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it from entrepreneurship, which was my area of interest. So
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I actually started it in the Washington, DC market, and
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it grew all across the country in different chapters of
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the nifty courses. So I would find entrepreneurs and I
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would bring them to class with me and let them
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introduce themselves, and I would coach them because I learned
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that many of them, as much as they love being there,
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talk over the kids' heads. So finding them is you know,
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I would say, I have a marketing background, so this
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is easy for me. I know everyone doesn't have that.
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There's so many, such a wealth of in every community
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of potential mentors. There's the economic development, there is the
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chambers of commerce or boards of trade. There are alumni
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from the school who would love to come back and
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take on this role. Every department has reach and relationships
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within their discipline and their industry. I'm talking chemistry, I'm
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talking journalism, whatever it is. I think the professors have
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their own reach. Then you have donors, you have boards
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on the schools, you have the state. You know who's
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behind these schools, like there's lots of and then there's
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neighboring communities of business people that want a pathway for
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students to join them. They're looking. It's the sort of
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the answer to workforce development, got you, But I think
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it's also up to the schools to learn what industry
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wants to learn. That this is where computer science is
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going and it's no longer coding is so important. What
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is this skill set you are looking for? Mister employers,
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Let us work together to build a student body that
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fills your needs. That's sort of marketing one on one.
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And you know, it's funny that you mentioned that, because
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I've always said that the purpose of education, especially in
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this day and agentisclimate. The purpose of education is to
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prepare our students for jobs that don't yet exist.
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Yes, and it's a tall order.
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Yeah, it is. So where can or how can schools
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and other organizations find out more about this teach to
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work foundation and project based mentoring so they can bring
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it into or they can partner and bring that stuff
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into their schools as well.
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Okay, so I have written a book. It is called
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Teach to Work. How I mentioned or a mentee and
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a project can close the skills gap in America. One
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of the proudest things I would say about the book,
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it's not just my experience at all. An opening chapter
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is why would companies do this? Which I think is
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what schools wonder. Why would a company want to do this?
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So has great answers to that question. And then why
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would employees want to do this? I mean it's management
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training for them, and it's building a pipeline. I mean,
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there's many reasons why they would want to do it.
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And then the whole middle section is what is project
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based mentoring and how do you do it? That the
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bulk of the book, and then I have a website
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Teach to Work dot com. But what I was going
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to say, what I'm the most proud of is the
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head of Workforce Development and Education for wrote my ForWord
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and they completely concur that for students to have a mentor,
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to endorse ideas and dreams, and to apply that to
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long term projects where they're applying what they're learning to
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the real world is one of the best forms of
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education there can be, so they highly recommend this as
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a good answer to where education can go.
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Great, great, thank you, and we're going to have this
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in there for now, but we would certainly like to
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thank our guest today, Patty Alper, founder of the Teach
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to Work Foundation and creator of project based mentoring, for
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coming onto our show.
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Thank you once again.
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My name is Kevin Boston Hill, and thank you all
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for listening to instruction discussion right here on the Voice
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of Naslau Community College ninety point three WHPC you cant
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keep