New Jersey tech companies Juniper OpenLab (Bridgewater) and the Verizon Foundation (Basking Ridge) have joined forces to develop a pilot workplace program that provides an ongoing source of mentorship and guidance for students.
The program is being run with the National Academy Foundation (NAF), and the pilot was conducted throughout this year with 11th-grade students at New York’s Manhattan Bridges High School.
Jerry Passione, general manager at Juniper OpenLab, and Jayne Mayer, director of employee engagement at the Verizon Foundation, spoke with NJTechWeekly.com about the program.
The pilot has gone so well that the companies plan to present it to the NAF at its July conference, in the District of Columbia. Verizon and Juniper would like to see NAF replicate this program with other business partners, Passione said.
Both companies said the program had worked out well because the students had had a chance to meet with company representatives several times and begin to develop relationships with them.
Photo: Students working in small groups at Juniper OpenLab. Photo Credit: Juniper OpenLab
Students working in small groups at Juniper OpenLab. | Juniper OpenLab
The students were comfortable enough to ask questions such as what the first years in engineering school are really like.
“They may have heard about college and know they should go, but they don’t know what to expect when they get there,” Verizon’s Mayer said. “This demystifies things to some extent … Our employees are very candid with them,” telling them, ‘Yeah, going to engineering school is difficult, there will be challenges and obstacles, but if you set your mind to it, you can do it.’ ”
The mentors advised the students to use all the tools they have to be successful, including all the people they had met through this program.
Said Mayer, “I’ve had students come up to me and say that this has made a difference to them in how they want to pursue their careers, giving them confidence in how they will move forward in pursuing higher education and providing role models to show that they can make it. They were able to talk to and interact with the folks at Juniper and Verizon who were like them and went to college and had a successful career.”
Photo: Students get some one on one mentoring during the program. Photo Credit: Juniper Open Lab
Students get some one on one mentoring during the program. | Juniper Open Lab
Passione added that the highlight of the program for him was that “we were able to build tight relationships with the students and get some confirmation that the program made an impact on their lives … Often, when you do one-time programs, you don’t get a sense of if the students are actually taking [in] the information and are able to do something with it.”
He added, “We wanted to give them the necessary confidence to go forward and not let the little things stand in their way.”
OpenLab has been reaching out to the community ever since it opened in Bridgewater in 2012, Passione noted, and had sponsored a few events for NAF schools in the past. Passione wanted to better serve the schools, and he contacted the Verizon Foundation, which suggested that the two companies team up.
“Together we wanted to do something different for the NAF schools. NAF emphasizes workplace learning programs, and Jayne had the idea that we should create a multi-engagement series of programs for the students during the school year rather than run a standalone program … We could touch on a number of different areas that would help the students prepare for college and career success,” Passione said.
In total, six events were scheduled during the school year. The first, which took place at Verizon’s offices in Basking Ridge, broke the ice. The students participated in a number of exercises ranging from engineering activities and community service to trivia and speed networking.
The next event, on Jan. 9, 2014, was held at the school. The Verizon and Juniper volunteers delivered a high-level, customized networking tutorial to the students, explaining routing, switching and other networking concepts.
Photo: Students get an introduction to the equipment at Juniper OpenLab. Photo Credit: Juniper OpenLab
Students get an introduction to the equipment at Juniper OpenLab. | Juniper OpenLab
In February, the Manhattan Bridges students visited Juniper OpenLab. This event centered on developing the soft skills the students would need for landing an internship this summer. The students received help in developing a résumé and participated in mock interviews. As one student put it, they learned “how to act around professionals.”
The students were able to see the OpenLab networking gear, and a Juniper executive explained the various pieces of equipment and how they function in the network. That event worked because it came on the heels of the January 9 networking tutorial, Passione said.
This video provides a good overview of that program.
The companies also did a community-service project with the group, which was greatly appreciated. “Although the focus of everything we are doing with the students is to get them on track, to get them to realize the power of STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] careers and higher education, we wanted to let them know that when they go into the world, they should have a spirit of community service,” Mayer stated.
For one of the final events, Verizon and Juniper are planning a college-oriented program. Representatives from six New York and New Jersey colleges will meet with the students and answer their questions. “We are doing it because the students asked for it. They got to know Jerry and me and told us they wanted it,” Mayer said.
A final program will bring all the employees who have touched these students’ lives back to the school for a celebration. “It will be a way to close the loop,” Passione said.