Mentoring, or creating an army of minions

Everyone should command an army of minions to do their evil bidding. Most never bother to amass their minions but I'm well on my way. In addition to the two I've already bent to my will, I'm actively working on two new ones. Soon my army will rise up and take over the world! I should probably mention at this point that my "army" consists of high school seniors and instead of having them carry out my "evil bidding," I'm really just mentoring their senior projects. But it sure sounds better that way, doesn't it?

Seriously, though, I am mentoring two Mountlake Terrace High School seniors this year, as I have in years past. It's really quite an honor to be asked to help guide these students. Both are developing web sites, which is something I know a bit about. They work on their projects for most of the academic year and present them to a panel of their peers, teachers, and community members come May.

I thought I'd mention the projects here and update this post as developments occur. For privacy's sake, I won't mention the students I'm mentoring by name; let's call them students 1 and 2 (original, huh?).

1. The Hawkeye (thehawkeye.org) - Student 1 is re-developing Mountlake Terrace High School's award-winning student newspaper, The Hawkeye. They've had a site for a few years but instead of becoming an active hub for news, it's been more of a repository of PDF copies of older issues and web posts of articles already printed in the paper. Student 1 intends to change this by instituting required online-only content from writers and distributing editorial control through WordPress's built-in roles. Of course, there's also a design component with this project: finding and customizing a WP theme suitable for an online newspaper.
2. MLT Food bank website (TBA) - Student 2's project is to create a website for Mountlake Terrace's food bank. Currently they have no web presence, so this will be a step in the right direction. He plans to post mostly brochure-style content (location, hours, mission statement, etc.) though I'm encouraging him to incorporate additional information to "humanize" the food bank. For example, quotes or stories from people the food bank has helped; perhaps with photos. As this is a new site, I'm guiding him through the process of choosing and registering a domain name, selecting a hosting company, and recommending WordPress as his development platform. WP offers the added benefit of allowing the food bank to manage its own content after the project is complete.

Mentoring is an art that is more complicated than it first seems. It's about finding the proper balance between telling and recommending, doing and suggesting. My main criteria for success are pretty simple. First, that the project gets done; second, that the student learned more with my help than they would have otherwise; and finally: that they don't hate me when it's over. Should be doable... except maybe that last one. After all, I am trying to build an army of minions and what good evil overlord isn't secretly despised by his underlings?

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