Mentoring Matters: Student Leaders Learn Workforce & Leadership Skills

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Thousands of students applied, only five were accepted from around Miami-Dade County.

These top students proved they were dedicated to their community and this summer they got a chance to learn workforce and leadership skills all while getting paid.

We recently got to see 18-year old Stephanie Torres in action. She was reading with a young boy.

She describes moments like those as some of the most rewarding for her this summer while working at the Boys & Girls Club of Miami.

"It's been super exciting because I never saw myself working directly with kids and being able to do that was amazing and being able to give back to their educational foundation through this nonprofit has been an amazing experience in general," said Stephanie.

Stephanie, who graduated from Doral Charter School, is just one of five students selected to take part in the Bank of America leadership program.

Once accepted into the program students take part in an 8-week paid internship at a local non-profit organization.

This summer, Stephanie worked as a camp counselor where she focused on enhancing the reading skills of young students.

"I actually read with them one on one, and I separate kids that are not able to read out loud or don't feel confident so I just pull them on the side and I read with them one on one and that helps build upon their self-esteem," said Stephanie

Stephanie says she appreciates the opportunity to work in her community and to give back.

Stephanie also got to take part in a leadership summit in Washington DC where she met some of South Florida's most prominent politicians, including Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz Ballart.

"It's a memorable week like seeing them in actual essence, it's amazing because you actually get to see what they did. Mario Diaz Ballart took us in his committee room at the moment, and it was an amazing experience because you get to hear about committee all the time but you never actually get to see how that works so seeing how they work and how it is all rush, rush and go it's amazing," said Stephanie.

But it's here at the boys and girls club where Stephanie says she experienced the most growth with the help and support from her mentor Brandon Jamison

Stephanie is an amazing human being too. She likes to baby them sometimes, but I helped her get more diverse with how she treats the kids.

So that way she can use a babies tone one time and then a more serious, like hey you got to do this kind of tone. So she is really good with that now.

Stephanie is excited to use her new leadership skills as she heads to Barry University in the fall where she plans to study political science.

"Personally, to be firm, that's the biggest thing because once in a while we need to be reassured that what we say is 100 percent who we are as a person, being confident with kids in particular. I feel that if you can do it with kids, you can do it with an adult because kids don't have no filter and they will turn around and do whatever they want after," she said. "So that's the biggest thing I took away from that but also the program itself of Bank of America Student leadership Program has taught me how to put my voice out there more than what I thought. I never thought I would be able to meet so many different people from so many different levels and backgrounds and being able to reach out to them in that sense and become friends with them at one point."

Bank of America Student Leaders program will start accepting applications to its program at the end of October. For more information, click here.

If you are a mentor and would like to share your story with us, please email us at mentoringmatters@cbs.com.

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