Mentorship Academy

Our 40-hour Mentorship Academy works with high school juniors and seniors to become career-ready so they are prepared with the skills, knowledge, and confidence to tackle any of the challenges life throws their way after they graduate from high school. Our mentors work with students to develop a resume, their business etiquette, and a game plan for how they will chase their dreams once they leave the safety net of Burke and North Charleston High School. Our program does so via three avenues:

  1. Eight Weeks of Classroom Sessions

  2. Awareness Trips

  3. Laptops for Completers

Eight Weeks of Classroom Sessions

Our mentors meet with their mentees for eight weeks to teach them the necessary skills that they will need to have to succeed in chasing their dreams. Through a carefully-designed curriculum, students have the foundation necessary to feel confident in their next steps after graduation. In these eight weeks student learn…

  • Professional Communication

  • Business Etiquette

  • How to Write a Cover Letter

  • How to Interview

  • How to Mingle in a Networking Setting

  • What their Main Priorities are

  • Their Strengths & Weaknesses

  • How to Create a Roadmap from Where they are to Where they want to be

 
 

Awareness Trips

Charleston is one of the fastest growing cities in America and with that growth brings a wealth of opportunities for high school graduates. Whether it be Bosch, Boeing, MUSC, the Port, or any of the other booming companies working in our backyard, there are amazing jobs out there that some students simply do not know about. We aim to fix that and take each mentee cohort on trips to a wide variety of businesses to see the diversity of high-paying jobs - some of which only require a certification that can be picked up for free at Trident. Our students are incredibly bright and capable and sometimes only need a quick connection. Places we have visited thus far are…

  • The Port Authority

  • Fire Department

  • Vikor Scientific

  • Charleston Riverdogs

  • Coastal Expeditions

  • Cummins Turbo Technology

  • Trident Technical College

  • Palmetto Commerce Parkway

  • South Carolina Aquarium

  • Charleston Place for DXC Conference

Laptops for Graduates

For their hard work, all students who graduate from our Mentorship Academy receive a free laptop that they can take with them after graduation. All CCSD students must return their Chromebook before they leave school. This may not cause too much of an issue at some schools, where students might get one as a graduation gift or at college orientation, but there are many students who do not receive such a luxury. This results in a significant technology gap between high-income and low-income students where many of our students rely completely on their phone. Try filling out a job application or writing a cover letter on your 3x6 inch iPhone. We aim to reduce that gap and ensure that ALL students have EVERYTHING they need to be successful in chasing their dreams.

We want to thank our amazing mentors from the Harbour Club and the Diversity Leadership Initiative at Furman University for giving their time in helping our students truly succeed and be prepared for their next steps after graduation.

We especially would like to thank the group from Furman for purchasing the laptops for our students at North Charleston High School.