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First Lady Sharon Davis Takes a Virtual Tour of IBM MentorPlace

California’s First Lady Sharon Davis met with school and community leaders
at John Muir Middle School in San Jose on May 20, where IBM unveiled

        IBM MentorPlace, a unique
          e-mentoring program between
           students and IBM employees
           designed to drive higher student
           achievement. Doug Balog, vice
           president of Storage Software
          Development, announced IBM’s
         support of the Governor’s
       Mentoring Partnership program
     and committed to recruit 1000 IBM
   employees as mentors by the year
2005. The announcement was a

response to the First Lady’s challenge,
issued earlier this year, to provide one million

mentors for California’s children over the next three years. "I’m thrilled that IBM is providing
such leadership by making this commitment to California’s next generation of decision
makers," Mrs. Davis said. "From the corporation to the classroom, we all share in what
it takes to build a better tomorrow."
.

Alexandra and Kavita, student participants
in IBM MentorPlace, shared their enthusiasm
for the project, and spoke about how much
they valued the relationship they had built with
their e-mentors over the past school year.
Kavita is planning for a career in technology,
thanks to the encouragement and support of
her e-mentor. The girls demonstrated the
IBM Learning Village software for Mrs. Davis
and afterwards collected her autograph. The
girls are alumni of IBM’s EXITE (EXploring
Interest in Technology and Engineering)
camp from last summer, which was the
catalyst for launching the IBM MentorPlace
program at John Muir Middle School.

IBM plans to significantly expand its pilot IBM MentorPlace program at John Muir Middle School
to other schools in the San Jose Unified School District for the coming year.