Step It Up, Inc.!
Step It Up, Inc.Services
How Step It Up, Inc. WORKS:
1. Step It Up, Inc. recruits high school students from Portland Public Schools and other nonprofit organizations where they are learning basic work skills in their chosen career field. These students have professional career aspirations and capabilities and apply for a Step It Up, Inc. internship position by submitting an application to our staff before the end of April. They are interviewed and selected by the Step It Up, Inc. staff and Board of Directors to participate in a 100 hour, or more, internship during July and August.
2. Each student is matched with a summer internship position and mentor at the office of a Step It Up, Inc. business or institution partner within the students' field of interest. All our participating students have completed a successful internship and forty percent have been hired by their hosting business or institution for paid employment while completing high school and attending college. They usually work part-time during the school year and full-time during the summer.
3. On-site mentors provide work experience, training and mentoring for each student to learn what it is like to work in their chosen career field. These mentors are staff within each office and have a committed interest in being a good mentor for their student. Most of these mentors continue to mentor their student after the internship period and provide encouragement for the student to achieve their career goals.
4. Step It Up, Inc. staff and volunteers meet with the students and mentors throughout the summer to ensure the internship is developing as planned and to collect research information for program evaluation and improvement. In 2007, Portland State University graduate students developed an evaluation plan for the Internship Program, which will be developed and implemented for the 2008 internship students and mentor participants. The Internship Program is based on the 40 Developmental Assets for Healthy Adolescents as researched by The Search Institute, which also provides the guidelines for the mentoring component of the program.
5. Step It Up, Inc. staff, volunteers and internship hosting partners continue to mentor the students during and after their internship with support for college and scholarship applications, tax returns and long-term career achievement support until the age of 25.
6. Each participating student gives back to Step It Up, Inc. by helping to recruit, mentor, and train younger students, assisting with fundraising activities, and providing program evaluation data for Step It Up, Inc. staff. We work with great students who achieve great career goals!
Step It Up, Inc. PARTNERS:
We add new Community Partners regulary! Our Community Partners include:
Benson High School
Grant High School
Roosevelt High School
Friends of the Children
Rosemary Anderson Middle & High School
We add additional Business and Institution Partners every year!
Our Business and Institution Partners include:
American Medical Response (AMR)
Associated Design Consultants, Inc.
Bio-Medical Research Center/OHSU
Doerbecher Children's Hospital/OHSU
eROI e-marketing firm
Glumac International (Electrical and Mechanical Engineering)
Lloyd Center Pharmacy
LRS Architects
Oregon Humane Society
Phagan's School of Cosmetology
Portland Farmer's Market
Portland Providence Medical Center
Stoel Rives law Firm
We add new career fields every year!
Step It Up, Inc.'s Internship Career Fields now include:
Electrical Engineering
Architecture
Public & Medical Safety
Interior Design & Space Planning
EMT/Paramedic
Pharmacology
Law
Cosmetology
e-marketing
Forensic Science
Veterinary Medicine
Zoology
Business & Marketing
Family Practitioner
Pediatrics