STUDENTS AND THEIR `MENTORS' ARE RECOGNIZED

Students and professionals who participated in a mentoring program during the 1992-93 school year recently were honored for their accomplishments at a recognition dinner and ceremony in Cape Girardeau.

The pilot project, "Mentoring: Achieving Potential," was designed to work with adult female students in vocational training programs as they prepare to enter the work force.

Dorothy Hardy, director of the mentoring program at the Cape Girardeau Area Vocational-Technical School, said that each female student was teamed with a female working professional in a related field.

The professional served as a mentor to the students to help provide a smooth transition from the classroom to the work place.

Cape Girardeau student, Darlene Hutson, participated in the program, and her mentor was Cindy Kreitler of Ste. Genevieve County Memorial Hospital.

Hutson is interested in and Kreitler works in respiratory therapy. Both live in Ste. Genevieve.

Hardy said that as a result of the mentoring program, the students have developed a greater understanding of the work place and employer expectations.

Also, students have gained their mentors as resource people working in their chosen fields, she added.