Sloan Fellow Bruce Gordon conceived the program as a hands-on, practical application of his Master's thesis, in which he explored the educational impact of cooperation between business and local schools. Mr. Gordon realized, as many business leaders have, that for a business to survive within a community through generations of employees, the schools in that community must be capable of producing tomorrow's workers. They must also be able to attract high caliber employees now, the kind of people who are probably also concerned about their children's education. Many Boston businesses have entered a cooperative program with the Boston public schools called The Boston Compact. Under The Compact, schools are held accountable for improving students' performance as measured by test scores, and businesses keep their end of the bargain by favoring Boston-educated job applicants when all other factors are equal.
Some businesses also fund sports programs and scholarships.
Sloan Fellows participate in an ancillary program in which they donate their time to act as mentors for students considered most likely to drop out of school. Remarkably, what began in 1988 with one Fellow now involves more than half the class. On the first and third Tuesday of each month, Sloan Fellows involved in the mentor program meet with their students. Typically, each mentor is assigned two or three high school freshmen. We're doing everything we can simply to prevent these kids from dropping out.