Empowered Voices – Encouragement Is Courage in Action

By GG Somerville. ETA Volunteer

I like to think of encouragement as giving courage. ETA’s Workforce Development program with University of Shady Grove students is all about acknowledging the students’ struggle, reinforcing their resilience and offering them guidance for future achievement.

ETA mentors work with teams of students in the development of their information technology projects. As the students develop their project, the mentors encourage these career focused students to seriously think about different approaches to their project and to expand their knowledge into unexplored areas. Students, in turn, encourage mentors to consider modifications to established norms and exploration of electronic advancements for achieving the goals of their project.

For the ETA mentors it takes courage to patiently listen to new ideas, to offer constructive guidance, and honestly support the students’ efforts. For students it takes courage to accept constructive criticism and to patiently explain their projects to less technically savvy mentors.

As an example, five students, in collaboration with their ETA mentor, developed a patient care system. The system gives a patient’s caregivers, family members, and medical staff a way to communicate with each other about the daily activities of their loved one who needs special care. The students and mentor developed a warm friendship that resulted in an easy exchange of ideas. The mentor happened to be in the cohort of the students’ target audience and students were open to the feedback from the mentor on their goals and strategy for the rollout of their project. Intergenerational encouragement led to students’ new ways of thinking, increased knowledge for the mentor and resulted in a successful student project.