Adult Connections

I heard of a school in Las Vegas that has a volunteer advisory board made up of a variety of professionals in the community. They act as project and curriculum advisors for teachers (is this how it looks in the "real" world),student mentors, panelists for presentations, networkers, etc.When the school needs advice and adult connections they go to this board.

My school has been fortunate to have many people give generously of their time and expertise to our students, but I would like to have a board like that described above in order to expand the opportunities.

Any ideas on how/where/who to start?

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jane Krauss on August 8, 2010 at 2:46pm

Man I'd steal that idea it's a great one! Maybe the methods of the LV school are transferable? One activity Suzie and I have done with staffs is Asset Mapping. It might be a way to get started finding your community assets/experts. I attached a pic (also in Reinv PBL) of one focused on local history.
You are so lucky to have the U in town, that's some asset! I'd love to know how this goes.asset_map.jpg

Permalink Reply by Suzie Boss on August 12, 2010 at 8:56am

Hi Twila,
I've visited some of those high-powered career and technical high schools in Las Vegas and have seen what you're talking about. Having an advisory board is so smart--not only for bringing in expertise, but also for building long-term relationships (and good will) with the community. It's amazing how many adults never set foot in a school after they graduate!
You might try to formalize relationships with professional organizations and local businesses so that they always have a representative on your advisory board. Think about the areas of expertise you might need, and then find out who in your community is involved in those endeavors. Be creative! For instance, ad agencies are going to employ graphic designers and writers. So will larger nonprofit organizations. (I'm thinking of arts examples because of your school focus, but you could apply the same kind of thinking to science, math, and other disciplines.)
And since you're in a college town, don't overlook university groups. They're likely to have artists/engineers/architects/experts-in-training who will be only too happy to share their passion with younger students.
One more suggestion: Give these "experts" a specific task so they'll feel useful. A high school art teacher I know, for instance, brings in colleagues from her previous career to provide feedback on students' portfolios. The experts love doing this and students learn a ton--so it's a big win all around.
Good luck!
~Suzie

Permalink Reply by Twila Busby on August 12, 2010 at 11:04pm

Thanks Suzie,
I do think I will begin by contacting more professional organizations. The U of A is a great resource, however they have so many formalized projects and partnerships going on with schools (ours included), that we don't seem to be able to always make the contacts that are able to come in for a specific project outside of the partnership programs. But I haven't contacted all departments either so maybe that's not fair to generalize.

You are so right about asking for a specific task, I have found that people are much more ready to volunteer their time if they know they will be doing something specific such as judging a debate, rather than asking them to give a speech to 300 6th graders about what they do. Maybe it's the fear of death and public speaking thing??

I guess we also better figure out what kind of a time commitment we would anticipate our advisory board would be making.

Thanks,

Twila

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