IBM employees mentor Paterson students in new program to prepare for technology careers

PATERSON — About 15 employees from IBM Corp. spent Tuesday afternoon mingling with about 50 ninth-graders from Panther Academy in their inaugural mentoring session under a new program designed to expand Paterson students’ opportunities for careers in technology.

Tuesday pretty much served as an icebreaker session. The students and techies played a get-acquainted game of “People Bingo,” then engaged in a competition in which they built “towers” out of tape and paper. The afternoon ended with pizza.

“This is where you start building your relationship with IBM,” Paterson Schools Superintendent Eileen Shafer told the students at the start of the session for a program called P-Tech (Pathways in Technology and Early College High School).

The students will get paid internships at IBM once they complete the third year of the six-year program, company officials said. The participants also will be taking tuition-free classes at Passaic County Community College on Saturdays under a schedule that would have them attaining a college associate’s degree when they complete P-Tech.

Paterson is one of 10 school districts in the United States partnering with IBM on P-Tech, said Monoswita Saha, IBM’s education manager in the company’s social responsibility office. The program also is in operation in more than 20 other countries, she said.

At schools where P-Tech has been in operation for years, more than 450 students have gotten paid IBM internships, Saha said. About 15 percent of the program’s graduates went on to full-time jobs with IBM, she added.

Saha urged the students to develop relationships with the mentors they met on Tuesday. “Start building your network now,” she said. “You go back to your mentors for internship opportunities.”

Several students interviewed on Tuesday said they welcomed the more challenging nature of the college classes they started taking under P-Tech.

“When I heard about the two-year college degree, I wanted to be in P-Tech so I could get ahead in my studies,” said Dorian Matos, 13.

Another freshman, Mike Andrade, said he was looking forward to learning from the IBM mentors. “I think it’s a great opportunity,” he said.

The mentors all work for IBM in the metropolitan area and will participate in a series of sessions with the students over the course of the year, Saha said.

Sunanda Saxena, who works as a chief of staff at IBM, said she volunteered for the mentoring program “because it’s important to start kids early” as they pursue careers in technology. Saxena, who lives in Edgewater, said there were five women and 55 men in her engineering classes in India.

“I feel like I’m trying to help some 16-year-old version of who I was,” she said.

Paterson is one of three school districts in New Jersey to get funding for P-Tech from the state government. The others are New Brunswick and Burlington. The programs in New Jersey started in September.

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