This summer we piloted our Summer Mentorship Program in conjunction with MedSTEM Pathways and with support from LINK Unlimited Scholars. The goal of this program was to provide high school students from West Side neighborhoods that are interested in various healthcare careers with college and career-focused mentoring from healthcare professionals.
We opened up the mentor application to all Rush employees in the spring and after evaluating the applications and conducting interviews, we chose 26 highly qualified mentors from a variety of departments and backgrounds. We then paired these 26 mentors with 26 rising and graduating high school seniors from our MedSTEM Pathways summer internship program based on personal and professional goals. Both the mentors and mentees went through training in June to learn how to develop professional relationships and make the most out of their time together. We held the Mentor Mentee Meet Up on Tuesday, June 4th at Park Tavern so that the mentor and mentee pairs could meet for the first time. Then, during the 6-week MedSTEM Pathways program, running from June 24th-August 2nd, mentors and mentees were asked to meet up three times and touch base via phone call, email, texting, etc. at least once per week. During their meetings, they participated in activities involving goal-setting, resume writing, and career exploration. Some mentees were even able to sit in on lectures taught by their mentors or shadow their mentors in their departments. We concluded the program with a Closing Celebration at Punch Bowl Social on Thursday, August 2nd to celebrate their hard work. We are excited that our pilot Summer Mentorship Program was a success, and we look forward to taking what we’ve learned from it to make it even better next summer.
Are you interested in becoming a mentor next summer? Be on the lookout for the mentor application on our website in Spring 2020.