Why Mentor?
Mentorships give our students access to hands-on training in fields ranging from architecture and graphic arts to digital media and fashion. These experiences provide Youth Designers with life-changing opportunities to build crucial job skills, contribute their perspectives in an authentic work environment, put themselves on the path to college, and transform their love of art and design into a career. Youth Design’s unique model addresses teen unemployment – one of the most pressing challenges facing urban communities – by enlisting the design community to provide critically needed summer jobs and substantive mentoring experiences. The program promotes diversity in the creative economy and raises awareness of design as an economic engine.
What's Involved?
Planning Work
Ideally, the Youth Designer's job will be a balance of work that is useful to you and your firm, and engaging and educational for the student (work is considered engaging when a student can clearly make a connection between their tasks and your firm’s products and services). We encourage you to try to outline such connections, especially when students are doing what they may perceive as “busy work”. If you are having trouble finding specific tasks for your student, here are some suggested educational activities that you can use:
- Job Shadowing—Allow the student to spend time observing and interviewing different staff members about their job responsibilities
- Research Projects—Develop projects where students can research different aspects of design
- Youth Designers Take Action assignment—The Time to Design Competition is an ongoing educational assignment that is to be completed by the students during their hours at the firm. This will be ongoing personal project that students can have as a physical product of their summer’s work. You should allow your student to work independently on their Time To Design assignment, but also make time to guide, assist and give advice
- Discovery Book—The Discovery Book is a seven-week
project that provides an opportunity for Youth Designers
to document the experiences of their summer immersion
as it unfolds, combining their own words with
images they create and/or select in a book format.
While adhering to the Youth Design brand “styleguide,”
students were challenged to individually develop a
unique creative voice while maintaining professional
attention to the needs of potential readers
- Resumé Design—Students can work on a resumé that demonstrates design competence and may serve as a tool for future career development. Supervisors should assist students in this project. It is a good way to help them develop their design skills
