Bank of New York Mellon : BNY Mellon Joins Mentorship Program to Connect Students with Technology Experts

BNY Mellon recently joined the New York City-wide Good for Me. Good for My City. campaign led by NYC Service to support the City's Youth Mentoring Initiative. The campaign is designed to encourage corporate volunteerism and provide mentoring opportunities for high school youth. The NYC Youth Mentoring Initiative just celebrated its one-year anniversary, announcing it connected 25,000 high school students and 10,000 volunteer mentors in 2017.

'Connecting young people to caring adults is key to ensuring students in our city have every chance for success,' said New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. 'I want to thank the thousands of New Yorkers who answered the call to be a high school student's personal champion over the last year.'

As part of the Good for Me. Good for My City. campaign, more than 50 BNY Mellon employees participated in the company's Community Partnership program and hosted more than 100 New York City public high school students enrolled in the Career and Technical Education program for a day devoted to Futures in Tech. The students participated in interactive sessions on a variety of tech topics including cybersecurity, design thinking and cloud technology. Simultaneously, educators toured spaces like BNY Mellon's UX Lab to learn about emerging technologies and updates in the field.

The students were very focused on technology and the ways it can be used to improve the world.

'The internet connects us all together,' said Thomas Zhou, a student at Brooklyn Tech. 'There are so many resources that can be found there - from 'Do It Yourself' videos to programming instruction. I am interested in removing the natural barriers that exist between software developers and technical engineers. I think it's important for the people working on software to know how to work with their hands and for the engineers to understand what's going on inside the computers.'

BNY Mellon's mentors were inspired by the students and their energy.

'I joined this event because I enjoy helping to shape young minds toward progressive opportunities and career pathways,' said Felicia Davis, a Business Technology Liaison at BNY Mellon. 'I was amazed at the very high technical skills of these students. These kids are already really deeply involved with all the newest technologies.'

Thirty-four New York City businesses, including BNY Mellon, have committed to the Good for Me. Good for My City. campaign in 2018. Collectively, partners have pledged to recruit nearly 7,000 employees as volunteer high school mentors.