Get Involved

Are you interested in supporting our entrepreneurship program, but don’t know how to get started? You've reached the right place!

Our program runs best with volunteers like you who are willing to share experiences, advice, and guidance while our young entrepreneurs work on their business ideas, pitches, etc. Examples of volunteer opportunities are listed below. If you don’t see a perfect fit, but you are passionate about helping young business students grow into successful adults, please contact us and we will help identify an aligned opportunity or perhaps create a new one based on your expertise and availability. Please reach out to our CTE Coordinator Samantha Bolin directly at Samantha.Bolin@fresnounified.org for next steps or to get started.

For more information about typical volunteer opportunities, please click on one of the following:

Ways to Get Involved

I am new to volunteering and/or I have limited time, but I want to get involved.

Judges

Here at Patino, we pride ourselves on preparing students to pitch their ideas to investors. We practice this by regularly having students pitch ideas, projects, etc. in front of an audience. We look for judges to evaluate these pitches (rubric provided), as well as provide feedback on what they did well, what they could improve upon, and any questions you have based on the presentation. We try to have a diverse group of backgrounds represented in our judging panels, including new partners who may not have worked with our student teams before.

If you are a busy person and want to get involved, or you are new to volunteering with us and want to see what our program produces, then this is the volunteer opportunity for you.

Students presenting at a screen to an audience while judges in front take notes

Students presenting in front of auditorium with slides displaying Customer Relationship strategy

I have 20-30 minutes available and I want to impact a large group of students.

Guest Speakers

Do you have expertise with a specific entrepreneurship topic? Do you want to share about that topic with young minds? Guest speakers typically provide a 20 minute presentation about a specific topic, share their current role and career journey, and answer student questions at the end. The most engaging sessions also include an activity to go along with the information being shared.

Some examples of past guest speaker topics include Branding, How to Succeed in Business, What is the Chamber of Commerce, Sustainable Business Practices, etc.

This is the volunteer option for you if time is limited and you are passionate about one specific topic.

Nathan Gilbert presenting in front of a screen that says Empower Your Sales Department

Katherine Silva presenting in front of a screen

I have a few hours available and prefer small groups over big crowds of students.

Classroom Coaches

Classroom coaches, like guest speakers, support a specific grade level business course by either team-teaching or supporting Q&A on specific entrepreneurship topics. We have identified topics within each grade level business course that are the most important that we’d like to have coaches help with. As a coach, you do not have to create lessons. We’ve taken care of that! What we are asking is would you be available during the class period to support the lesson by sharing advice, your experience related to that topic as it has come up in your career, and general guidance for students in small groups. As a coach, you’ll be matched with a specific lesson topic that could take 1-2 days, so we would calendar these days with you to make sure you could attend. This is the volunteer option for you if you have a half or full day available, you like working with small groups rather than talking to a full classroom all at once, and you are familiar with a specific business topic.

Business partner sits at 1 table and talks with students while other students are at other tables

Adults standing and talking with students who are seated at a table

I have more time available and want to dig deep to help a specific small group of students over multiple visits.

Mentors

Our program is at its best when we can have community experts (YOU) in the room working directly with students on a regular basis. Mentors work with a specific student business team of generally 3-5 students. We ask mentors to meet monthly with their student business team during the entrepreneurship class period. While we prefer in-person, virtual accommodation can be made. Mentors ask questions and guide students as they develop their businesses while following our classroom curriculum. We will provide you with the topics and pacing, as well as sample questions to ask the teams based on what they are learning at the time. Mentors do not tell students what the answers are, but rather guide and encourage them to achieve their next milestones. Prior to mentor meetings, student business teams will create and share a meeting agenda, so there will be clarity of purpose during the time together.

Efforts will be made to match student business ideas with mentors familiar with the industry they have selected. However, experience in any industry is sufficient to guide students through the early stages of incubating and accelerating an business idea, which our courses aim to do.

This is the volunteer option for you if you want to work more closely with one specific business team from ideation through starting their business. Mentors interact more regularly with 1 specific student group.

5 students sit around a table showing a website while a mentor sits at the edge of the camera

Jeff Bennett and group of students sitting at a table and talking

students and mentor sitting at table talking

students sitting at table in front of screen while on a virtual call with a business partner

I have a different idea about how I want to help.

Other

Sometimes, great opportunities don't fit in specific boxes. If you'd like to get involved, but you aren't sure which of the above options makes the most sense, we'd love to chat with you about possibilities. Please reach out directly if you...

have a student leadership program or volunteer organization and you'd like to invite students to participate.
are an industry expert and want to share insight about that industry with our business students creating a business in that industry, even if you are not a business owner (technology, manufacturing, etc.). Businesses don't exist in a vacuum, and students can learn from you about trends, gaps, and needs in an industry sector. Perhaps the business students create can help solve those!
would be willing to conduct mock interviews to give students practice and feedback.
have or want to start a student business pitch competition, and you’d like to invite our entrepreneurs to apply
are open to having a small group of students tour your place of business or job-shadow to learn about the day-to-day jobs
would like to donate funding or materials to help students create prototypes of their products
have an idea or desire to help, but aren't sure where to begin.