Internet links students with Native mentors

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You know something's got to be pretty cool for kids to voluntarily skip recess. But when the afternoon recess bell rang at San Antonio School in Bissett, Man. on Feb. 4, a small group of Grade 7 students stayed right where they were - having a real-time chat with a really cool guy via the Internet.

That really cool guy was Darrick Baxter. Baxter is a young Aboriginal entrepreneur who runs his own company - Virtual Circle Multimedia. The Internet conversation was part of an innovative mentorship project put together by Wardrop Business Solutions Inc. and Frontier School Division. Most of this northern Manitoba division's students are Aboriginal.

Designed to reach students when they are starting to think about career choices, The Wardrop MentorNet program will link Grade 7 students with five Aboriginal role models in the fields of business, science and technology.

"We wanted to fund a charitable donation in an area in which we could make the most impact," said Bob Swain, president and CEO of Wardrop Business Solutions Inc. "As an international company, Wardrop receives applications from many causes. We wanted to do something for the Aboriginal community. We ended up talking with the Frontier School Division."

Other partners in developing the program were the Department of Aboriginal and Northern Affairs, Economic Innovation and Technology Council (EITC), Manitoba Education and Training, Manitoba Education Research and Learning Information Networks (MERLIN) and Kinetix Corporation Inc.

The MentorNet program is structured as a series of five Internet forums. The Feb. 4 forum, Computer Technology and the Internet, was the first. Over the next few months forums will be run in Business Entrepreneurship, Environmental Science, Civil Engineering, and 3-D Computer Assisted Design and Drafting (CADD).

Two schools will participate in each forum. Each forum is hosted by a Wardrop computer professional.

The other school online Feb. 4 was Cranberry elementary school in Cranberry Portage. An archived transcript of this forum can be viewed online at www.wardropmentornet.com.

Here are some excerpts from that transcript:

In answer to a question about how much time he puts in sitting in front of a computer, for example, Baxter answered "Approximately 10 to 14 hours a day."

Curious students found out what kind of hardware Baxter works with.

"I currently have three computers (2 Pentium 400 and a 333 and two CD burners.)"

They asked some essential questions.

"How much money does your business make in an average month, if you don't mind answering?"

They found out it's never too early to start thinking about a career.

"When I was in high school, I always asked myself, 'what would I be doing in five years?'"

And they found what the key was to making it in the business world.

"Above all, communication skills. You need these in every part of business to be successful."

The students had actually "met" Baxter before the forum. Wardrop Business Solutions Inc. had videotaped a conversation between Baxter and the Wardrop computer host, Chris Dalkie, at Baxter's workplace, where topics such as training and interesting things about Baxter's job were discussed. This video was shown in the classrooms before the forum took place.

Students also filled out entry surveys before the forum. Among the questions, students were asked what came to mind when they thought about careers in business. Some of the answers were jobs in the stock market, sales, police, computers, and "boss of a big company."

The students were also asked "When you think about a career in science or engineering, what kind of jobs do you think about?" Answers here included "scientist," "computer scientist," "person who studies the sky" and "person who studies dinosaur bones."

Colleen Weibel, career and personal awareness co-ordinator with Frontier School Division, noted that some of the replies to the latter question were "scientist or engineer, just that, nohing specific." Weibel added it's hoped that the exit surveys, completed by the students after the forum, will yield more specific responses.

But it appears the forum has achieved a fundamental goal already, that of sparking student interest in business and technology careers. When it came time to sign off from the Feb. 4 forum and e-mail addresses had been shared all around, the students from San Antonio had this to say: "Thanks. Working for Wardrop or Virtual Circle is a very exciting job we think."