A year ago, Goldman, a second-year grad student in the Executive Masters in Technology Management program, was poised to become a young professional, having spent five years doing technology managing for the Philadelphia branch of Alliance Consulting, a subsidiary of Safeguard Scientifics. Still, something was missing. "I'd done very well, but fulfillment-wise, I was bored," he recalls.
Goldman quit his job and began researching trends in science and technology education. He found startling results. There was a definitive lack of domestic students choosing information technology majors at a college level.
High school "students simply don't know enough about technology to make an informed decision about it once they get to college," Goldman explains.
So, he decided to take action.
The next step was planning a program that would target students at this critical juncture and expose them to possible careers in science and technology.
Goldman's idea evolved into a budding nonprofit organization called Mentor IT. It uses a joint approach of educational software and individualized mentoring to improve technical literacy, train students with real-world business skills and promote interest in technology as a career choice.
At the end of the program, students begin a paid summer internship with an information and technology company
Mentor IT is set to begin in the next few weeks at Garnet Valley High School in Delaware County.
"We are really proud that we were chosen to be a part of this program," said Nancy Beard, a career development coordinator at GVHS.
The 18 students who have been accepted into the upcoming pilot program will spend approximately three to four hours each week for 16 weeks training for their specific internships. Training will be held both during and after school and led by Goldman and other community professionals.
Mentor IT "bridges the gap between just teaching students skills and showing them how they actually use them in business," Goldman says.
Passion alone, however, was not enough to propel the idea forward. If it takes a village to raise a child, Goldman had to assemble his village by hand. For this, he turned to the University.
Enter Bonnie Botel-Sheppard of the Penn Literacy Program, an offshoot of Penn's Graduate School of Education. PLN provides mentoring and workshops to educators across the nation.
Sheppard has not only a professional stake in the mission but also a personal one. She credits her son's interest in technology to mentoring he received in high school. "As a parent and a professional, I know Dan's onto something very good."
Additionally, the coordination efforts of the Wharton Social Impact Management Initiative, an umbrella group that forges relationships between students, faculty and industry, have led corporations like IBM to sign on to the program.
Goldman also recruited Scott Snyder, a part-time Engineering School faculty member and president of Decision Strategies International, a consulting company. "Students can become passionate about technology at an earlier age if they are exposed to it, but many aren't until college or the work world," Snyder explains.
The remaining problem became funding. No longer receiving a regular salary, Goldman began to question the logistics of keeping Mentor IT afloat.
Help arrived in the form of the Wharton Community Consulting Program, where Goldman acquired a team of four MBAs and one Wharton undergrad to tackle the issues of budget, evaluation, curriculum and finding suitable internships.
What began as a work relationship with his MBA team evolved into a tightly knit group effort. "If you talk to Dan, you can see that he is an agent of social change," says Ethan Johnson, a first-year MBA student who assisted Goldman. "As consultants we try to make his ideas happen for him."
