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Shakopee spotlight: students and local employers describe hands-on mentoring during National Mentoring Month
Summary
At its Jan. 27 meeting the Shakopee Public School District highlighted career-focused mentoring partnerships, with students and local partners describing internships, site visits and project work; the board also approved the meeting agenda.
At its Jan. 27, 2025, meeting the Shakopee Public School District held a student partner spotlight for National Mentoring Month, featuring students and community partners who described internships, industry site visits, client projects and other hands‑on mentoring activities that connect classroom learning to local employers.
The spotlight brought together students in the district’s CAPS and CAP STEM pathways and partners from Saint Francis, Bayer Crop science, Scott County Library and Scott County Administration to describe how mentorships give students workplace experience, project skills and career exposure. Josh Betcher, quality and engineering manager for manufacturing at Bayer Crop Science and the CAPS Engineering Manufacturing Academy champion, said, “we try to provide an opportunity for students to learn some competencies towards manufacturing and engineering in a real manufacturing environment.”
Students detailed specific experiences. Ophelia, who identified herself as part of the CAPS healthcare medicine pathway, said the program has arranged internships, client projects, career expos and industry tours to introduce high school students to health‑care careers. Jazzy, a senior in the CAP STEM program, and James, also a CAP STEM senior in the engineering manufacturing academy, described two‑day site visits to the Bayer manufacturing floor that let them shadow staff and learn workplace skills such as time management and professional communication.
Amy, senior marketing and communications specialist at Saint Francis, described health‑care shadowing opportunities and hands‑on activities — including supervised use of a DaVinci surgical robot simulator — and said mentors also help students with real tasks like designing a mural for the district athletic training office. Jen Schultz, Scott County Library director, said CAPS interns have helped with early education programming, outreach and marketing for library initiatives and “have provided invaluable information about what we can do at the library to help bring community into the library.” Jake Gursing of Scott County Administration said students’ perspectives have prompted county staff to rethink outreach and communications to reach younger residents.
Students and partners also highlighted project work: one student said a team created a prototype for NASA’s HUNCH program with a planned handoff at the end of February; another described leading design and construction of a smudging space at the high school. Partners said mentoring benefits staff as well as students, reinvigorating experienced employees and improving how they explain work to newcomers.
The board handled routine business before public comment. A motion to approve the meeting agenda was made by Aldrich and seconded by Peterson; the board voted in favor and the motion carried. Board staff reminded attendees of public comment rules under school board policy 206: the board allocates a total of 15 minutes for public comment at this meeting, with up to 2.5 minutes per speaker and prioritization for speakers on the agenda or living within the district.
Board members and presenters described the spotlight as a recurring part of the district’s partnership work; no formal policy changes or funding decisions were proposed during the presentation.
Votes at a glance Aldrich moved to approve the meeting agenda; Peterson seconded. Chair called for the vote and members present voted yes; the motion carried.
