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High School Students – Mentoring Program

Many APL staff members work with young students in science and technology activities. One motivation is the essential need to develop the technical talent we need in the future. But, there’s also the idea of sharing the passion for one’s chosen specialty.

Through APL’s Education Outreach Office, a number of staff members volunteer to mentor high school students. The program pairs students from public and private high schools in Howard County with volunteers on APL’s professional staff. By agreement, a student works on a specific project under supervision of a staff mentor, usually for a school year. The projects often include preparation for local, regional, and national science competitions.

Near the end of each school year, APL hosts a Howard County G&T Student Learning Conference. The event brings together all of APL's mentor students to present their papers and exhibit their projects that demonstrate their semesters’ work.

Mentor student Brent Stanford worked with Rob Williams in the Engineering and Test section of APL’s Technical Services Department. Stanford was a student at the Energy, Power, and Transportation Academy at a local Howard County high school.

Mentors Develop Future Talent

Principal Professional Staff engineer and Group Supervisor Ralph Brown has been mentoring students at APL for over 10 years. Brown says he commits the time because it’s important to the Lab as well as the young students. “The declining enrollment in science and technology education means that competition for qualified engineers and scientists will significantly increase in the near future. In this environment, any advantage we give our organization will provide significant benefits downstream.”

Brown also encourages his staff to be mentors as well—for a very practical reason. He thinks it’s a good experience for a senior engineer to work with a mentor student. “It provides opportunities to explain a technical phenomenon to someone who is not experienced in this field (or someone who isn’t buried in the technical details of a task). Many upper level managers and APL government sponsors may not be experts in a field. And, if the engineer can explain it to a mentee successfully, it may improve his presentation skills to managers and sponsors.”

Last verified: 7/25/2006