Student/Partner Alliance Empowers Students with Resume Tips

[SUMMIT, NJ] – FEBRUARY 15, 2022 Student/Partner Alliance(S/PA), a Summit based non-profit, which supports low-income, urban high school students in the greater Newark and Jersey City areas continues to serve its students virtually with enrichment programs over zoom. Jacquelyn Gilbert, Founder and CEO of JW Warren LLC, a comprehensive career development company that offers a variety of exceptional professional development services led a group of mentors and mentees on a session about Resume Essentials and Social Media Branding at 7pm on Thursday, February 10th.

Chris Beltran, S/PA Board Member and St. Benedict’s Prep Alum, noted, “The pandemic has helped our organization innovate and connect with the students in new ways. The session run by Jacquelyn Gilbert was a great way to set up S/PA students for success as they look towards the future.”

During the zoom session, Mrs. Gilbert outlined the best ways to sell yourself as a job candidate and inspired the students as she talked about dressing for the job you want and the importance of being intentional with your actions to achieve your goals.

One mentor noted: “Mrs. Gilbert did a terrific job showing the students how relevant their volunteer and extracurricular involvement is to building out a series of important job skills. She clearly and eloquently mapped out the steps that students should take from day one in starting a career.”

During the session, students and mentors were encouraged to ask questions about best practices for resume writing and social media presence.

For the past two years, S/PA has created and offered meaningful virtual events to keep the S/PA community connected while COVID cases were too high to allow for in person gatherings. As COVID is decreasing in our community, we are delighted to now be able to plan more in-person events to promote deeper connections between our mentors and mentees. We will also continue our very popular enrichment series with events such as career panels and job readiness in the coming months.

Student/Partner Alliance was founded in 1993 to support motivated high school students at private high schools in New Jersey’s urban areas of Essex, Hudson and Union counties with tuition assistance and mentoring to increase their chances for college admission and chances of earning college scholarships.

If you are interested in learning more about being a mentor with Student/Partner Alliance, please visit our website at www.studentpartneralliance.org.

ABOUT:

Student/Partner Alliance

The mission of Student/Partner Alliance (S/PA) is to support motivated high school students at private high schools in New Jersey’s urban areas of Essex, Hudson and Union counties with tuition assistance and mentoring to increase their chances for college admission and scholarships, and ultimately to lead successful and productive lives.

Research from mentor.org shows that mentors play a powerful role in providing young people with the tools to strive and thrive, to attend and engage in school, and to reduce or avoid risky behavior like drug use. In turn, these young people are:

– 55% more likely to be enrolled in college

– 81% more likely to report participating regularly in sports or extracurricular activities

– 78% more likely to volunteer regularly in their communities.

– More than twice as likely to say they held a leadership position in a club or sports team.

Yet, the same research shows that one in three young people in our country will grow up without a mentor. Today, in our community there are so many young people who could benefit from having a mentor outside their family.

To learn more about the role mentoring plays in our community and to find volunteer opportunities with us visit www.studentpartneralliance.org. If you would like to learn more about our program, please contact me at akent@studentpartneralliance.org.