Each day, Boothbay Region High School (BRHS) senior Harriet McKane arrived at Burke's Island Farm with a goal. Her trainer, Amy Reny’s, new horse Crash needed to be broken in for riding, and she was going to help do it.  

Then, one day, it happened. She climbed on Crash’s back for her first ride.  

“It was exciting to see all our hard work pay off,” McKane wrote in an email to the Register.  

McKane is one of the participating students in BRHS’s mentorship program, which allows high schoolers to get school credit while working in the community.  

“This provides the employer with help at the same time as the kids are learning some strategies about being at work,” said Mary Miller, mentorship coordinator. The program can also help those who are not college-bound establish local connections for future employment.  

Over the 25 years since the program’s establishment, students have mentored at veterinary offices, healthcare practices, estheticians, elementary schools, shipyards, farms, and the local sewer and water districts. Just to name a few. Miller says many have gone on to get careers in what they mentored in. McKane, who wants to be a horse trainer, is hoping to follow down that path as well.  

In the current school schedule, students spend about an hour and 15 minutes every day at their work-study for a semester, although some double up class blocks or extend the mentorship for the full year. This differs from Bath Regional Career and Technical Center, which is a half-day, often two-year commitment that emphasizes building skills from the ground up in a specific program.  

“Nobody really knows what the life of a physical therapist or a veterinarian is like on a day-to-day basis until you walk in those shoes, until you actually watch. Since every day is different with any of these professions...if you can spend some time seeing what it's like, it's hugely helpful to (deciding) that this is the right career for you,” said Dr. Dean Domeyer of Boothbay Animal Hospital.  

The veterinary practice has had about a dozen mentees over the past decade. Students shadow almost all aspects of daily operations, which Domeyer says is essential as a large, and often overlooked, aspect of the job is the ability to advise people.  

“We want (students) to see everything.” Especially if it helps them make an informed decision if they want to pursue the expensive eight-year commitment that is vet school, he says. 

For other local businesses, the mentorship program is a way to secure the future of their industries.  

“At the rate that boat building shops are closing in the state and (that) the people that are working there are getting older, I'm trying to just get kids excited about doing what I do,” said Matt Sledge, owner of Samoset Boatworks. He currently has two students interning with him who are learning how to build boats from the ground up: something Sledge has been doing for 37 years.   

Whether students are interested in taking their first step down the college-bound path or setting up connections for entering the workforce, the BRHS mentorship program has options.