I always wanted a little sister. I do have a younger brother, but it’s not exactly the same. I had considered doing Big Brother, Big Sister to become a bigger sister and while I do love the concept, the time commitment seemed a bit more than I could handle.
Then, I happened to come upon an interesting job posting. It was a development position at an organization called BUILD. While I never applied for the job, I knew I had to become involved somehow and that’s how I started becoming a mentor to a group of 5 high school sophomore students coming up with a written business plan about their product, PocketSocks, and preparing for their final business plan presentation at a competition for the chance to win up to $1000 to start their business.
The BUILD commitment is 1.5 hours after school every week on a weekday at one of 4 partner schools in Boston–for me, that was right in my backyard at Another Course to College in Brighton–with occasional special events and competitions that might be at a different days/times. BUILD provides you with an overview of what will be covered that week with the students, but you really want to take the initiative to have ideas about how you can also contribute towards their learning and help them have an advantage in their writing and presentations.
The BUILD concept is to teach entrepreneurship to at-risk students in low performing schools who have opted-in to a four year program with the final goal of going to college. In 9th grade, the students take a class every day learning about all aspects of running a business, including idea creation, prototyping, marketing, finance, etc. and by the end of the school year, will have a team of 4-5 students and a product they will pitch at a business plan competition with a written plan. In 10th grade, the teams will actually manufacture and sell their products with a real investment from an investor mentor to which they must pay back before earning their own profits. Then in the 11th and 12th grades, the emphasis is shifted more towards college preparation and applications.
I’ve been fortunate enough to work in a job flexible enough to allow me to continue my mentoring during the weekday afternoon. I currently mentor a group of 5 female 9th graders, and I can see myself in them: shy, a bit reserved, but having lots of potential and desire to become better. It is very fulfilling to see the transformation in the students throughout the year. It’s a very challenging task as 9th graders to consistently need to present in front of groups of 30 up to 100 audience members, and I couldn’t be more proud of them as they keep working towards improving their performance and product.
Working with teenagers in general is not as easy as I thought it would be. I didn’t think I was so far removed from my teenage years, but I realized that you can’t be too formal (nor too informal) with teenagers. It’s difficult reaching a right balance, but when you do make a connection, it feels pretty awesome. BUILD is always looking for more volunteer mentors and judges to help out or volunteers at the Business Plan Competition. Let me know if you’d like to become connected with the BUILD staff!