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IT Mentorship Program Kick-Starts Careers

August 18, 2015

When technology challenges arise in the offices and classrooms across Angelo State, the first responders are likely student workers who are members of the IT Mentorship Program.

The program emphasizes a customer-service driven approach that includes courtesy and careful listening, and it includes all the 60-plus student workers employed by ASU’s Information Technology Office.

“We’re not successful unless we help find these students a job after they graduate,” said Jeane Irby, IT director of strategic planning. “For that, they need both technical skills and so-called soft skills, customer service skills.”

Launched in the 1990s under the direction of Doug Fox, ASU’s associate vice president of information technology, the informal mentorship program has produced a steady stream of graduates who have entered the workforce. USAA, a military-connected financial services company based in San Antonio, has hired a significant number of graduates of the mentorship program. Over the past five years, half of ASU’s IT new hires were former members of the mentorship program.

Executive Director of IT Brian Braden Executive Director of IT Brian Braden “We use the mentorship program as our farm team,” said Brian Braden, executive director of IT. “They have proven they have the ability to learn and exhibit good communication skills.”

The student workers come from nearly every academic discipline.

“Our philosophy is we can train specific technical skills and our internal processes,” Irby said. “They’re getting exceptional instruction in the classroom and we’re giving hands-on training to complement the instruction.”

“One of the things we’re trying to teach is the whole realm of work experience,” she added. “For a lot of them, this is their first job. As the students progress in the mentorship program, they will dabble in specialized technical areas, supervising day-to-day work and participating in annual performance reviews.”

San Angelo native Hayden Harris, a senior math major, applied to work for IT his second semester on campus.

“I’m decent with computers and I thought a job on campus would be nice so I decided to apply,” Harris said. “There were lots of surprises. It was a bit of a wake-up call. At that time, I was the tech guy of my family and my circle of friends. It was actually nice to learn I don’t know everything.”

“The level of professionalism expected of us as student workers is exceptional,” he added. “I think it is preparing me for what a ‘real’ job would be like.”

Harris also likes the variety of the technology work.

“I want this to carry over with what I do next,” he said. “I don’t know what I’m going to do but if I were to get a job right out of college, I would want it to be something like this. I feel like I’m in my element.”

Ty Walden, a technology services analyst for ASU, is a veteran of the IT Mentorship Program. He joined the program while pursuing a master’s degree in school administration and working as a graduate assistant for the Rams basketball team.

The level of professionalism expected of us as student workers is exceptional. I think it is preparing me for what a ‘real’ job would be like.

Hayden Harris, IT student worker

“I was multi-tasking,” Walden said. “I had planned to be a coach and then a school principal, but I had also begun to realize I didn’t want to do the long bus trips. I had no technology experience, but I applied to be a student worker for the IT Office and the mentorship program taught me everything I know today.”

“When an ASU staff position opened,” he added, “I applied because I felt like IT was a family-oriented environment and, of course, I love ASU.”

Walden, Irby and other former members of the IT Mentorship Program are using their experiences to help improve the program. In recent years, the team of supervisors has added ethics training, team-building experiences and a buddy system to provide the student workers with continuity and a support system.

“We consider this on-the-job-training,” Braden said, “and we feel like it helps complement their classroom experiences. I get excited because we are hopefully giving them the tools to succeed when they leave here to begin their careers.”