In an effort to align with the mission of Holmes High School (HHS), To guide all students to discover, pursue, and connect with their post-secondary dreams, Covington Partners (CP) and Covington Independent Public Schools (CIPS) have collaborated to implement and facilitate a work-based mentoring program. 

Currently, over forty students and eight employer sites, including Allied Construction, Covington Fire Department, DBL Law, Salyers Group, and Taft Museum of Art, participate in the successful program.

Through the Covington Partners Mentoring Program, students are matched one-to-one with an adult professional in a chosen field of interest to explore a career, career interests, and related workplace and career development issues. The career mentor serves as a resource for the student by sharing insights and providing encouragement and guidance about the workplace, work ethics, careers, and educational requirements.

Kate Andriacco, work-based mentoring coordinator, states that the “true value of the program lies in the relationships high school students are able to build with professionals in their chosen career field. Not only do mentors provide the tangible college and career readiness components, they also provide an experiential window into the workplace norms, values, and culture to which students would otherwise never be exposed.” 

Work-based mentoring experiences promote exploration of a field of interest and increase students’ exposure to jobs, careers, and adult role models in the workplace. Students can develop pre-employment and work maturity skills while building professional knowledge. Throughout the two-year program, students participate in job shadowing, leadership skill building, hands-on college and career readiness activities, in addition to concluding the program with a completed resume and recommendation letter from a prominent member of the local community. 

"Work-based mentoring has helped me acknowledge and see the different opportunities that I can choose from that I didn't know of before, which makes my journey less stressful and my path for a successful career clearer,” says Kylee Butwick, Holmes High School junior. Butrick’s experience has opened her to “a world of opportunities, not just with [her] future career, but it’s also helped [her] grow emotionally as a person by showing different perspectives of others.” Through her participation in work-based mentoring, Butwick knows she wants to help people who have had the same experiences as her by becoming a social worker.

The program plans to continue to expand its reach to more students and employer sites. If you are interested in learning more about work-based mentoring or other mentoring options through the Covington Partners Mentoring Program, please click HERE. Questions related to work-based mentoring can be directed to Kate Andriacco.