Mentorship program paves way for students after coding academy

A new mentorship program in the region has emerged, this one for the IT industry. 

S-One Holdings Corp., a Sarasota-based digital imaging company with clients and offices worldwide, recently launched a partnership with the State College of Florida in Bradenton to provide mentors to local IT talent. 

“The importance is giving them real-life guidance,” Janelle Piersoll, S-One vice president of IT says. “They can take what they learned and help them apply it.” 

A team of six S-One software engineers with more than 20 years of experience became mentors for six students. The mentors meet with students at least once a month for 30 minutes. The program runs in tandem with the software engineering bootcamp Coding Academy offers at 26 West Center, the new innovative hub at the school, according to a statement. 

Not only are students gaining useful skills, but for at least one student, success was as simple as seeing representation in the field. Emily DeHaan, a Coding Academy bootcamp student, noted in the release that being mentored by a woman senior software engineer at S-One was important. DeHaan is currently the only woman in the bootcamp. 

There’s no limit on the number of mentors and students who can be in the program, as long as the students are in phase three of the coding academy. The software engineering course is available in the evenings and on Saturdays. 

“The fact that SCF has a non-traditional educational route for information technology makes me proud,” Desh Bagley, IT/Coding Academy Director, says in the release. “Our partnership with S-One gives students opportunities that they may not have. If you’re a person seeking a career change to make a difference for yourself, your family, and your future, we help you do so with industry partners like S-One.”