pastoral and she's the founder and director of exploring careers through mentoring welcome thank you thanks for joining me thank you very much before we start what i'd like to do is read the mission statement of your organization think ok the mission of the career i mentor kit programs is to introduce young women ages eleven through fourteen to a wide variety of traditional and nontraditional careers that are financially rewarding and personally satisfying through innovative and engaging methods and materials experienced cam kit teachers encourage young women to discover their skills and interests within the context of a supportive team environment th young women gain insight into how to map their skills and values with various careers women from diverse ethnic and socio economic backgrounds serve as mentors ok so that's the mission of your organization why don't you we begin by what you tell us how you develop this mission statement what led you to you know start this organization well i was mentored as a child by my aunt and it was very important to me to have her help me work through the problems of life and i noticed when i got out of college all there were a few different jobs a woman could do you know that secretary teacher nurse and something else i mean but so what we what we thought when we started this program was that mentoring would be a very important part of that like my aunt to help me we could help other younger women look at their options and that's what my own did she opened she sent me to puppet classes and you know all kinds of art programs and things that i really enjoyed and also i almost ran out of money in college and she gave me the money so i wouldn't even finish college and she was a wonderful mentor she helped me decide things so we wanted to help young people see the with the wide range of jobs that were available and we look at only jobs that are looking lucrative jobs financially rewarding and personally status fine and then we said well how are we going to take each the kids about these jobs and we said well mentor you know we use mentors and so there's people all around and i meet very interesting women and i interview them and we make a we have one make a mentor story card where on the one side they talk about the personal lives on the other side they talk about their work it's all set up for a young girl because our programs are for eleven to fourteen right it's easily read by a that a j and each one is teaches about the career and also the resilient woman because many of the women have been through a lot of life trials have changed jobs have have changed careers altogether the telecommunications person used to be she had graduated from be you in a degree in journalism and she didn't like it so somehow she found its other career by now when you go do you bring the cards into the girls or that the actual people come in and then how does that work when you find somebody who you think would be appropriate for a group of girls help how does it work well it's more that what we interview them and we produce this card and the card becomes a part of every workshop so in the workshop the girls read these cards and they develop activities around the career and these are brain based activities like eric jensen so they they are activities that get them up and moving around and they also  there's communications activities whatever the job requires the kinds of ski the job requires mike listening if study requires listening we have listening activity i say if the you know so we have activities that match right a and kinesthetic which means you touch the i could like carpenters and whatever which we have a carpenter and then also there's people who are analytical you know so we have that's another kind of learning like a computer  people and and i think fossick like scientists and computer people so that's another kind of style but can be on top of the other ones right now how does a school or an organization find you and invite you to come in and free workshops this summer if anybody wants to contact ok and i think we will have you the web by the end of the show we'll have your website up there so people can get in touch with you if they're interested i would say in either helping you in becoming a mentor and having you come to their organization great now i wanted to just read a couple of quotes about mentors that all that you've brought to this first one is imagining the future becomes much harder to do and so exactly what you're saying is this and are you are you going into communities where girls are have less advantages are going into all types of communities are we focusing on well our goal would be to make sure that urban and rural girls get help because those they have they don't have much help now and the urban girls particularly the young girls have a very scary life i mean it's you know the outside is scary inside the home may be scary and when they go into an afterschool program is a wonderful relief for them and they're willing they're really happy to be away  maybe from the neighborhood and and they they're very interested in what's going on and so you offer well let me ask you this first this specific lea about your program that makes it different than some other programs out there what do you think is are some of the differences than any other program well i think the main one of our main differences is that were there in the classroom we're not it's not electronic so we have real people because a lot of programs use you know mentoring through the internet but it's not the value that psychology would tell you that you need from a human person saying you're doing a really good job yeah you know looking over your shoulder and saying wow that's really great or you know stand here and do this or you know and that's what our program is a real person and people come into the we bring everything with us to the location and we offer series of programs so that you can it's not just one shot with that mentor right you you see the people and they you build a relationship a closeness with the people because they're the warmest doc teachers are the warmest people yeah i would imagine how on your program it's for   and right now we have four courses which is automotive engineer and carpenter automotive out of automotive mechanic engine engineer carpenter and software engineer well so those we have those of one hours each one hour each and it introduces the girls going into it a vocational technical school which ways of knowing whether they'd like that career right that's great and to the girls or the programs pay you is it free how does that work well that is that is it they pay the school or the youth group one hundred ok but we have a lot of different programs and one hundred different rates like a there's we're where those take us well that would have that would have to be a vocational high school because the girls would go to say the carpentry lab for an hour and a half and and then switch to i t and then maybe call an area arts right where they would make the lunch and yeah you know that's great and are your mentors volunteers they they don't there's a few that go to the classrooms but it because we're we're so we're going to be so large they don't they won't go but we'll find people in the community yes who will be there and be there to talk with us this isn't a future this yes that's great when did you come up with this idea how long you've been developing this well it's a very i was long ago when i was thousand and two i got laid off from my job in two thousand and two i thought you know this is something i've always wanted to do one why go back to it and i'm sick spending it so now it's it's there's a thousand different careers but some of them are engineers of different kinds and i want to expand into energy health care environmental and there's tons of jobs and all of those things where there's jobs there and now there's no a problem with those i would imagine that the girls must love it i mean if i was in that age and back at i it must be really exciting to have people come in and for them to visualize their future as something more than there they think they can have yes so i mean wonderful reviews i provides real life people around the boston area who the young women can easily relate to here's another quote i was motivated to be one of barbara's mentors because there is an immense need to provide role models of color for all professions barbara gives us the opportunity to be that for our young women and here's why marc many young girls just dream of getting married and having children i think barbara's program will open up opportunities for girls to get past that and dream about bigger careers for themselves yes they're all very and they speak very highly of you and thank you and your idea i mean it's a fantastic idea thank you i think your next i would imagine you're looking for some funding you need help besides financial which is i guess the obvious one what are other ways that people could help if they're watching today and they would love to get involved with you but it can't be in a financial way what other ways can people help you well i'd love some volunteers  to help me with in my office also i'm just trying to locate teachers who would like to do this retired teachers who are would be you know are the mentoring type yeah because we've had wonderful we have wonderful teachers and  i need curriculum developers ok as well i have wonderful quick to developers too but it's we're getting bigger we're doing a lot of different careers know it's a very interesting way to do this too because it's not your average you know it's not the always people used to teach of a lecture it's all doing things and having fun right great well it's a fantastic organization i'm really glad that you exposed all of us to it i want to thank you  for coming on the show and wish you all the best with us and let us know if there's anything else we can do if you'd like to get in touch with barbara here's what you can do this is barbara's phone number  please give her a call feel like to donate any money and or become a volunteer for you right in the few have a school or you'd like me to come in and do a free program i would do a free program great for you good  thank you very much if you'd like to be a guest on my show i would love to have you please contact me at w w w dot belmont media dot org and you can come on to thank you very much barbara it was really