Validation

Identifying the need for this program is critical. 

Facebook poll

To get the opinion of locals I posted a poll on Facebook from our ELC account and my personal account. The results will be interesting I assume, I'll run them for a week.
Post picture of the polls

Results..so far

They've been running for 4 days. My personal account is getting responses, the ELC... not so much. The results are completely opposite of what I expected. In fact, more people are interested in mentoring. There is still expressed interest in being mentored, though.

Final results

The numbers didn't change too much. Its a surprise to me to see that so many people said they would be interested in mentoring someone else. However, 4 people out of the 17 like the comment suggesting that both options were a good choice. 

Here is some of the feedback I got on the poll other than the actual votes.

Facebook only allowed for 2 questions, but "both" would have been a great thirds option. It's apparent that some individuals WERE interested in both, as indicated by the 2 thumbs up on Logan Tremellen's comment.

It's also quite clear that people don't really understand what being mentored is... or what mentoring is. Simply the questions "about what?" and "Depends what?" shows some ignorance about the topic. That is validation in itself.

THE NEED

- We're a mentor program. There are a few in Lancaster... lots targeted at younger kids, only a few available to college students.

- the one's targeted at kids are trying to help underprivileged/troubled youth. 

- The ones AVAILABLE to college students are merely that. Just available.

Why we're different.

- We're targeting college students. (Maybe requiring our students) 

- We're not targeting troubled/underprivileged students

- We're targeting students looking for business/entrepreneurial advice

   * this means two things. We're not trying to help kids from a potential bad situation. We're assisting        young adults in their life goals as business owners. This takes a huge weight off mentors, I think. It's less of a responsibility and more of giving back. It wouldn't need to be that time committing if the meetings were highly value-driven. 

For example, meeting about 3 times throughout the semester during a students practicum class. They're developing their idea, and putting the details together for their business plan. (if not, what course DOES this go down in?) The student should have 3-5 questions prepared for the meeting, geared towards improving their current progress. This is a simple way to ensure the meeting is value driven. The meeting should probably be around an hour. I did