Mentors

Bold Idea students are supported by Bold Idea’s community of 150+ mentors who work in technology roles at companies like Microsoft, Texas Capital Bank, State Farm, and Pariveda Solutions. North Texas students need the opportunity Bold Idea provides, which allows them to interact with a diverse group of peers, learn from encouraging professional mentors, gain critical thinking and problem-solving mindsets, and become technologically prepared no matter what career they choose.

Who is a Bold Idea Mentor?

A mentor and student celebrate solving a coding challenge together.

Mentors are volunteers from site partners or companies in the North Texas area. Anyone who is over 18, can pass a background check, and attends/views all required training materials can be a Bold Idea mentor.

Bold Idea mentors are student's technology role models. Working alongside students each week, mentors provide encouragement and coaching as students create hands-on coding projects. The impact is also two-way. Mentors gain new skills in leadership, communication, coaching, and conflict resolution.

Though mentoring is most appealing for technical-skilled professionals, mentors do not need a background in programming to volunteer. We seek out mentor volunteers who look like our students, which is especially important for girls and students of color to see that it is possible for them to pursue careers requiring computer science skills.

Mentor Responsibilities

Attending club/camp sessions each week unless otherwise stated to the team captains or on Hive attendance at least 24 hours before the session
Working in each session with students, guiding them through the Bold Idea curriculum
Register on the Bold Idea Volunteer portal for their specific camp or club
Complete either a background check through Bold Idea or a DISD volunteer application and background check before the start of the program
Review all training videos and attend any kick-off or training events prior to the start of the club/camp
Know the curriculum and look over the materials before working with students each week.
Award Badges when students finish a challenge or project

Time Committments

Volunteers can sign-up as mentors in the fall, spring, and summer semesters. Mentors support a Coding Club during 1.5- or two-hour sessions once a week for 14 weeks (or twice a week for 7 weeks in the summer for coding camps). Each school year has 28 two-hour learning sessions, allowing students and mentors to develop meaningful relationships over 56 hours together.

Training Resources

Volunteer Portal

The Volunteer Portal is where all of your training checklist, course information, student lists, attendance log, coding platforms, and course-specific resources are located. Your log-in information will be what you set up when you signed up as a volunteer with Bold Idea.

Bold Idea Volunteer Training Videos

These are the same videos linked to your checklist on the volunteer portal. Please watch all videos for a short overview of your role and what you need to know before your first session of club/camp with Bold Idea.

Courses

All of our curriculum resources that you can find on your volunteer portal are in the resources tab.

Coding Challenge Solutions

Students cannot be awarded a badge until they complete a coding challenge. Completing a coding challenge means successfully solving the code and producing a viable product. DO NOT share the wiki pages containing solutions with students - it is important they discover the solutions on their own. However, we provide mentors with the solutions so that you can more easily check students' work and guide them when they are running into errors.

Badges

Badges are awarded to Bold Idea students when they complete a specific coding challenge, guided project, or course curriculum with us. It is the mentors' responsibility to keep tabs on student progress and award a badge when they have met the requirements. These are important for staff, future mentors, parents, and the students to be able to see each individuals progress and what they have and have not learned while with Bold Idea.

Don't know how to Code?

Previous experience with computer science and coding is not required for Bold Idea mentors. If you are a volunteer mentor and have no background in coding - the best way to learn would be to go through your course's curriculum beforehand. You have access to the IDE and learning documents on your volunteer portal.

If you want further resources for how to learn to code here are some online resources that we recommend: