McCaskey Career Tech Mentoring Program

 

The McCaskey Career Tech Mentoring Program provides mentoring experiences and guidance with Rotarians, business persons and other mentors from the Lancaster Community.  Although a Rotary Club of Lancaster Committee project, Lancaster Rotarian Rich Wolman is the one who spear-headed the program and got it to where it is today.  Without Rich's passion, and drive to make a difference, this program may have never come to fruition.  Rich's efforts certainly personify RCL's motto of "Service Above Self." –

 

 

By Susan Baldridge, Staff Writer, LNP

 

He runs the nation's sixth-largest prison system, and he came to McCaskey East High School on Friday to encourage kids in a mentoring program to stay clear of his institutions.

 

"It's easier to build strong children than fix a broken man," said Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel, paraphrasing statesman Frederick Douglass.  "I care deeply about our communities, and I'm concerned about kids, especially kids of color," said Wetzel. "A young man of color who drops out of high school has a 70 percent chance of being in the criminal justice system sometime in his life."

 

The 38 high school juniors and seniors in the Rotary Club of Lancaster's mentoring program seem headed in the right direction.

 

Some of them credited the mentoring program with helping them make good decisions. "I've gotten good advice here," said Tyshae Johnson, 17, a senior. "I think I'm going to be a 

better leader because of the people we've seen within the mentoring program. I'm surprised how many people we've had to talk to."

 

Rich Wolman, who put together the mentoring group three years ago, said this year's focus was on job shadowing.  "The kids found out as much about jobs they were interested in as they did ones they didn't want to do and that's important, too," said Wolman.

 

 

 

Briana Davidson, 18, wasn't sure what she wanted to do for a career, back in the fall when she entered the mentorship program. But now she does —business.

 

She's attending Bloomsburg University to major in it.  She said she learned a lot from all the professionals who came in to mentor the students.

 

Wetzel said determination and focus are things he lacked in high school.  But because of football and the mentorship he got from his coaches, he graduated from Elanco High School and Bloomsburg University, although he said he was on the 11-year plan for college. He talked about some of the challenges in his own life.  He was adopted and was the only African-American student in his high school at the time.

 

He didn't meet his birth mother until he was in college. But he encouraged students who were going through their own challenges to always believe they can make it.