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TalentQuest Partners with Boys & Girls Club to Help Children Succeed
New program offers customized skills assessment, career counseling, leadership development and executive mentorship program for Birmingham club members.
BIRMINGHAM, July 13, 2010 - TalentQuest, a human capital management and software solutions firm, has joined forces with Birmingham’s Boys & Girls Club to help area teens succeed in life.
Dr. Kelly Schuck, managing director of TalentQuest’s Birmingham office, has created a customized skills assessment, career counseling, leadership development and executive mentorship program for the club’s 1,500 members. Working closely with Art Allen, president and chief professional officer of the A.G. Gaston Boys & Girls Club, Dr. Schuck recently completed personality and skill assessments of 17 of the Club’s highest-potential students in the eighth through the eleventh grades.
“The participating students had widely varying career interests including athletics, law, the arts, engineering, healthcare and journalism,” Schuck said. “While we intend to recognize and respect their interests, we also look forward to working with local leaders representing a variety of industries and professions to expose the students to professional opportunities they may otherwise not have known existed.”
In the fall, Dr. Schuck will launch a mentoring program pairing the students with like-minded, executive-level mentors from some of Alabama’s most respected organizations. For example, Schuck will work with the Alabama Humanities Foundation to support the interests of a student who expressed a life-long passion for and an interest in drama and theatre. For another student who expressed an interest in journalism, Schuck will work with Joel Welker, publisher of the Birmingham Business Journal.
“We are proud to be involved with this important initiative,” Welker said. “I look forward to learning how to be a highly effective, positively influencing mentor and to exposing young people to the world of journalism,” Welker said.
Recognizing that mentoring programs all too often fail due to a lack of structure, poorly managed expectations and virtually no training, Dr. Schuck is committed to investing the time and energy required to ensure the program is a long-term success. Mentors are carefully selected and evaluated to ensure they possess the traits and characteristics required to be successful in the role.
“Sixty percent of the children served by the A.G. Gaston Boys and Girls Club are in foster care,” Schuck said. “Their lives have been filled with disappointment and instability so it is absolutely critical that their mentors be reliable and constant influences.”
Mentors will be asked to commit to a one-year program that will include periodic group meetings as well as frequent interactive sessions with their mentees. Most importantly, all mentors will be required to complete a comprehensive training program during which they will learn how to effectively mentor students and how to handle challenges that may arise.
In May, TalentQuest proudly sponsored the A.G. Gaston Boys & Girls Club’s 43rd Anniversary Dinner featuring former Secretary of State, Dr. Condoleezza Rice. As a member of the Boys & Girls Club’s national board of directors, Rice is strongly committed to the organization. During her speech Dr. Rice challenged the Birmingham business community to help each child find his or her individual passion.
“The mentoring program and career exploration project that Dr. Schuck has created for our members speaks directly Dr. Rice’s challenge,” Allen said. “We are very excited about TalentQuest’s level of commitment to our kids and their long-term success.”
About TalentQuest
TalentQuest has been strengthening organizational performance and advancing leadership for more than 35 years by blending the art of consulting with the science of technology. The company’s consultants and organizational psychologists deliver fully-integrated human capital management consulting and talent management solutions that span the entire employee lifecycle—from talent selection to leadership succession—enabling organizations to maximize the value of their investment in people. The company provides strategy alignment, assessment and selection, management and talent development at every level to enable clients to increase profitability and competitive positioning, and achieve peak performance.
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