Career Mentoring

Career Mentoring involves a personalized exploration of potential careers and related educational paths through one-on-one or small group interactions between students and adult professionals. Unlike programs like Big Brother, Big Sister, a career mentor acts as a valuable career resource, sharing insights and guidance about workplaces, careers, and postsecondary education/training. These interactions take place formally and informally, within the school, workplace, or online, always in supervised environments and never at home. Occasionally, a mentor might work with and support a small group of students.

The cornerstone of a successful career mentoring experience is the establishment of a trusting relationship between the student and mentor. Designed to achieve specific learning outcomes, career mentoring is strategically aligned with the curriculum, enriching education by bridging classroom learning with real-world work contexts.

This window has now closed for recruiting Career Mentors. We will open this opportunity July 2024. 

Our registration link is now available from July 24, 2023 until September 15, 2023. 

• Registration Link Embedded Here : Deadline to register is Friday, September 15th.  

  • • • If a hard copy of the registration form is needed, please preview form here NKC Schools Mentor Profile.

• Scheduled Mentor Meetings for 2023-24:  All meetings will be held the 2nd or 3rd Tuesday of the month.  See schedule and topics here.

• Times for 2023-24:  Sessions are 60 minutes in length 

• Commitment:  Mentors make an 8 month commitment: one meeting per month, October through May. If possible, it is important that mentors attend every session.

• Location:  One of the four North Kansas City High Schools, supported by our High School College and Career Facilitator.

• Materials:  All forms, session agendas, pre-planned monthly activities and training materials are provided in manual linked here.

• Mentor Meeting Topics:  Agendas are pre-planned and focus on topics such as: Communication, SMART Goals, Academic Success, Action Planning, Career Planning, Resume & Interview Skills. See this year’s Mentor Handbook!

• Commit to attending all 8 scheduled on-campus meetings for the year.

• Be on time to meetings and alert NKC Schools Staff if there is a sudden conflict.

• Have a positive attitude.

• Share with students about your career, successes, lessons learned, etc.

• Listen to students with an open mind.

• Complete all forms related to the Volunteer Mentor Process noted above.

• Respond to email correspondences in a timely manner.

• Be a resource to students when they desire career advice or business contacts.

• Notify NKC Schools Staff if students need additional guidance or if the mentor has any concerns.

• Attend Mentor Orientation before meeting students for the first time.

• Read and sign the Mentoring Contract before meeting students at first session.

STEP 1:  COMPLETE MENTOR APPLICATION & PROFILE FORM ONLINE  Community partners interested in mentoring should read the details of the mentor program carefully on page above and then fill out the online application below.

• Registration link: https://forms.gle/WwbqRx7qTcrwKNaMA 

STEP 2:  MENTOR ORIENTATION 

All registered mentors will complete a 45-minute virtual orientation. The 23-24 orientation dates and times are below and provided in the registration link above. 

• Wednesday, September 6th @ 1pm 

• Friday, September 8th @ 9am 

• Thursday, September 21st @ 9am  

STEP 3:  VOLUNTEER SCREENING AND PAPERWORK

Mentors must follow our District volunteer screening requirements. Volunteers must:

• Be sponsored or approved by a school site or district employee (WBL Director)

• Be able to present some form of current government-issued photo identification (driver’s license, passport, military ID, US or other government identification)

• After a volunteer submits their mentorship registration, this particular step will come directly from the Director for Work-Based Learning, Shannon C. Shelton.   

  • 1. • New mentors must complete fingerprints and background checks with both State and National databases prior to October 1st. NKC Schools will pay for all background checks and fingerprints for all mentors. A requirement with this step will be to first complete the NEW Request to Conduct Volunteer Screening Form that will be submitted to our HR team as they will provide all payment codes accordingly. 

• Read and acknowledge understanding of the NKC Schools Board Policy and Standards of Conduct 

• When on campus, always sign in at the main office.

• Wear a visitor's badge to be left at the high school at the conclusion of the day’s volunteer activity.

If you have any questions, please reach out to Shannon C. Shelton at shannon.c.shelton@nkcschools.org. 

STEP 4: MATCHING STUDENTS TO MENTORS

Late September, we will host a 45-minute informal meet-and-greet for students and mentors to meet each other in order to provide placements for the school year.