BEST PRACTICES FOR SUCCESS
CAREER VOICES S
by Gale Horton Gay Contributing Editor
HOW MENTORING WORKS WITH BEYA STARS AND STRIPES
upporting young people is an ambition that many organizations claim. BEYA Stars and Stripes doesn’t just make the claim; it has a two-pronged approach to
providing young people with meaningful guidance through mentoring. Walter Davis, who serves as chairman of the Stars and Stripes
Committee and is a retired deputy chief of naval operations, recalls coworkers and friends asking him and other high-ranking military personnel to talk to and advise their children as well as request letters of recommendations from them. “Let’s take that to youth that don’t normally have that
opportunity,” said Davis of the impetus for starting the Black Engineer of the Year Awards (BEYA) Pre-Dinner Mentoring Program and the Sustained Mentoring Program. Both programs seek to bolster young people’s interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and the careers and opportunities that exist in those fi elds.
Jesse McCurdy, director/
coordinator of the Sustained Mentoring Program, said it was determined that students need more than once-a-year contact with mentors. Instead of waiting
to see young people only at the annual BEYA events, the
mentors—mostly retired military Jesse McCurdy
and civilians—go where the students are during the school year.
Young people who teachers
and school offi cials identify as having “a decent grade point average,” potential, and an interest in STEM meet with the mentors. The mentors share the realities of working in various STEM careers, diffi culties they encountered, salary information, courses to take in college, ways to fi nance college, and more, McCurdy said. “We try to visit the schools once a month,” McCurdy said of the visits that start in November and continue until the end of the school year. One of the students McCurdy said has benefi tted greatly
from the Sustained Mentoring Program attended Thomas Jeff erson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia. He’s currently a sophomore at Yale University working on a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. Four schools in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia, as well as two schools in Philadelphia, are involved in the program. The mentors also arrange for speakers at the schools and
often participate in career or STEM day events. The four-year-old program currently has 10 mentors (two
to three per school), but McCurdy would like to recruit more. McCurdy pointed out the mentors —many are retirees—
Adm. (Ret.) Anthony Winns
Captain Toni Bowden and Lieutenant Commander Melissa Troncoso visited the BEYA Sustained Mentoring Program to enlighten, encourage and inspire more than 30 young people in Suitland Senior High School’s Naval Junior ROTC program. All the students who attended are on the fast track to college with a desire to major in STEM disciplines.
18 USBE&IT | WINTER 2017
www.blackengineer.com
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