Getting students involved in the community while completing their mentorships, business teacher Amanda Davoli has created a new mentorship program revolving around Souderton Connect’s 3rd Fridays.
According to Davoli, being more involved with the Souderton community herself inspired her to look for ways to include students as well.
“After attending a few meetings with Souderton Connects and really learning about the organization, and the direction that we’re going as a community organization, I saw an opportunity,” Davoli said.
Souderton Connects manager Jessica Cimini said there are five different positions offered through the mentorship, those being event planning, photography and videography, marketing, civic engagement and child development.
“All of those happen at each event,” Cimini said. “And then they’re also skills and things that happen all the time in the real world with many other things that are involved in businesses and other nonprofits.”
For Davoli, she said she really wanted the students she chose for the program to have care and passion for the work they will be doing with adult members of the community.
“I created it because I believe in getting kids involved with communities and real work. When it’s real, it’s meaningful. And when there’s care, it’s meaningful,” Davoli said.
Sophomore Condoleezza Oyesola, who is part of the event planning aspect of the mentorship, said getting involved in the town is one thing she’s looking forward to.
“[It’s] just being immersed in the community, meeting more people, great networking and everything,” Oyesola said.
For junior Matthew Kennedy, who is part of the photography and videography portion of the program, the experience of working with someone with real world experience is also exciting.
“I feel like when it comes to filming and editing, there’s always room for improvement,” Kennedy said. “I’m looking to use it as an opportunity to help improve myself and my own skills.”
Sophomore Jennielis Laboy Rodriguez, who is involved with the child development mentorship, is also looking forward to improving her skills with children.
“I love working with kids, because I’ll learn more about them. If I want to be a teacher when I’m older, then that will show me more stuff to learn about,” Rodriguez said.
Davoli also said that while each student will have their individual job, she also wants them to work as a team, along with the adults from Souderton Connects.
“I just think we have a really cool, dynamic team,” Davoli said, “and everybody’s going to get something so different out of this, but collectively, they get to see these events happen each month, and it’s going to be awesome.”
Davoli hopes that with the mentorship spanning many months, students will be able to grow and take risks.
“One of the most unique things about this particular mentorship, is that opportunity to grow, and take risks and learn and make improvements,” Davoli said.
Cimini said that she’s looking forward to seeing parts of the event through the eyes of the younger generation, and hearing their new ideas for each month.
“I hope they reflect on the fact that, with each successful night, they feel some sort of pride,” Cimini said.
According to Davoli, 3rd Fridays are only the beginning of getting kids out of the building and into the community to do something meaningful.
“There’s some really cool projects that students would totally thrive in and add amazing things to,” Davoli said.
Oyesola cannot wait to get started. “[I] can’t wait to see how this gets better in years to come,” Oyesola said.