Thom Jones, president of the St. Lucie County Education Foundation, and Will Armstead, CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs, met with a variety of business owners/managers, club members and others to launch a mentoring program. The sessions were held over two days at local BGC clubhouses.

The mentoring program is part of the STAR Scholars & Workforce Readiness initiative in partnership with the Florida Prepaid College Foundation.

“Our goal is to introduce local businesses to students through this program to help build a quality work force,” said Jones. “The students will be matched up to a business that they would like to work with in the future. The businesses will mentor the students and ultimately offer jobs upon graduation.”

During the meetings, the businesses were able to talk directly to the students about their business and answer questions.

“The students learned so much,” added Armstead. “It was incredible to see the enthusiasm from all sides. We hope to create a win-win-win for the students, businesses and the community.”

Additional business/student sessions are being planned. If your business is interested in participating in the program, contact Thom Jones at 772-429-5505 or Will Armstead at 772-460-9918.

The mentoring program is made available through St. Lucie Public Schools, St. Lucie Education Foundation and the Boys & Girls Clubs of St. Lucie County. Current members include Treasure Coast Lexus (Amber Woods), PGA of America (Brent Bauer), Bank of America (Kevin Staten/Margo Lopez), Wells Fargo Bank (Annmarie Ferlan/Scott Orr), St Lucie Battery & Tire (Jeff Deans), PNC Bank (Lucy Carr/Tiffany Byrnes), Fort Pierce Public Utilities (Paul Jakobczak/L. Wolf) and Martin Health Systems (Jodi Dargan/Liz Bishop).