Meets National Standards

The icouldbe.org program and curriculum meets the National Mentoring Partnership’s Twelve Elements of Effective E-Mentoring, the U.S. Department of Labor’s SCANS Competencies & Foundation Skills and the American School Counselor Association’s National Standards.

National Mentoring Partnership

icouldbe.org meets the National Mentoring Partnership’s Twelve Elements of Effective E-Mentoring (Programs), which include:

1. A statement of purpose and long-range plan.
2. A technology implementation strategy.
3. Safety measures for youths and mentors.
4. A recruitment plan for both mentors and youths.
5. A separate orientation for mentors and youths.
6. Eligibility screening for mentors and youths.
7. A readiness and training curriculum for all mentors and youths.
8. Strategy for matching mentors and youths.
9. A monitoring process.
10. A support, recognition and retention component.
11. Closure steps.
12. An evaluation and information dissemination process.

U.S. Department of Labor

icouldbe.org meets the U.S. Department of Labor’s SCANS (Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills) Competencies and Foundation Skills.

The SCANS Commission general areas of competence are:

• Resources. The ability to identify, organize, plan, and allocate resources.
• Interpersonal. The ability to work well with others
• Information. The ability to acquire and use information.
• Systems. The ability to understand complex interrelationships.
• Technology. The ability to work with a variety of technologies

The Commission’s foundation of intellectual skills and personal qualities that underlie the SCANS Competencies are:

• Basic skills. Read, write, perform mathematical operations, listen, and speak.
• Thinking skills. Think creatively, make decisions, solve problems, visualize, learn and apply new knowledge and skills.
• Personal qualities. Responsibility, self-esteem, sociability, self-management, integrity, honesty.

American School Counselor Association

icouldbe.org meets the American School Counselor Association’s Career Development Standards A, B & C, which include:

• Developing Career Awareness. Acquiring the skills to investigate the world of work in relation to knowledge of self and to make informed career decisions.
• Acquiring Career Information and Identifying Career Goals. Employing strategies to achieve future career success and satisfaction.
• Acquiring Knowledge to Achieve Career Goals. Understanding the relationship among personal qualities, education and training, and the world of work.

Evaluation Statistics

icouldbe.org profoundly and positively impacts its participants. Results show that icouldbe.org:

• Benefits mentees (including improving their self-esteem and writing skills).
• Provides e-mentors a rewarding way to give back to underserved teens.
• Provides a valuable resource to instructors, schools and after-school programs.
• Meets its six programmatic/organizational goals, which are to:

1. Expand mentees’ knowledge of range of careers/post-high school options open to mentees.
2. Expand mentees’ knowledge of how people choose careers.
3. Help mentees identify professional careers that may be of interest to them (and to desire to acquire such careers).
4. Expand mentees’ knowledge about steps required to attain specific careers.
5. Enhance mentees’ self esteem by forming strong, supportive relationships with e-mentors.
6. Lower mentees’ apathy toward high school studies.

Mentees benefit from icouldbe.org, highly regard their icouldbe.org experience and improve their writing skills.

• 90% of mentees benefit from the icouldbe.org program.
• 90% of mentees are satisfied or very satisfied with their overall icouldbe.org experience.

E-Mentors also benefit from, and appreciate, the icouldbe.org experience and would encourage others to become e-mentors.

• 87% of e-mentors are satisfied or very satisfied with their e-mentoring relationship.
• 97% of e-mentors would encourage other professionals to become icouldbe.org e-mentors.