Mentor/Student Involvement Philosophies

[Jon Stratis]

This discussion has been beaten to death over the years, but I think it's still a good thing to bring it up occasionally, and for everyone to take a few moments of introspection to understand how it is they work with their team, and how it could be better.

Personally, I don't care how other teams are run, so long as one thing happens: the students are inspired. The only success that matters out there, in my mind, is the percentage of students from a team that go on to major in something relevant and related to their job on the team. If a team has this happening at near 100%, then they don't need to change a thing. If, on the other hand, they find they are driving away kids, then something needs to change.

I can't count the number of students I've seen who have left our team when they graduate and are on a completely different career path than they imagined when they started high school. That's all the success you need.