Kevin McQuirk

Metropolitan State University - 2019

Mentoring high school students in the Denver Public Schools.

Project: My project for the Puksta foundation is a year long mentorship between paired, college and high school students in the Denver Public Schools. The name for my mentoring program is Impact the Youth. Through Impact the Youth, I will immerse high school mentees into the higher education environment on the Auraria Campus. The high school students which Impact the Youth is designed for are minorities, undocumented people, and socio economic disadvantaged students that are in their second, third, or last year of high school. The goal of the project is to present these students multiple options of education through a university or community college. It is designed to show higher education as one of the best career options, encourage them to attend college, and remove any road block in the way of these goals. In Impact the Youth, I will build mentor-mentee relationships with high school students by inviting them attend activities at MSU Denver throughout the year. These activities could be a presentation, laboratory research, lecture, or event on the Auraria campus. This will allow high school students to be familiar with college campus and to experience many opportunities through organizations at MSU Denver. This will also provide high school students the potential to work with on campus organizations that they may potentially become involved with if they attend MSU Denver in the near future.

 

Inspiration: My experience in through a Puksta alumni’s project at CU Boulder with Juedon Kebede.

 

Future Plans for Project: I hope to help more underrepresented students enter college and obtain STEM degrees.