Mentoring Youth Through Technology turns 10

Mentoring Youth Through Technology was founded by Randle Carter. Photo provided by Mentoring Youth Through Technology.
Mentoring Youth Through Technology was founded by Randle Carter. Photo provided by Mentoring Youth Through Technology.

 Mentoring Youth Through Technology turns 10

By Tia Carol Jones

Ten years ago, Randle Carter founded Mentoring Youth Technology with the goal to give back to youth in at risk and underserved communities to expose them to technology careers. Carter has more than 30 years of experience in Information Technology. He learned about computers from a friend and he excelled in it. Throughout his career, he has worked as a desktop support engineer, network engineer, project manager and also started his own consulting firm. He has been self-employed since in 2003. He did all of that without a college degree.

Carter felt that it was important to give young people a skill set that would enable them to have a career, whether they attended college or not.  Mentoring Youth Through Technology provides robotics, coding, game development, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, drones, as well as mentoring, to students ages 6-18. With the organization’s Young Innovators Club, young people learn how to build their own devices – drones, video games and other technology-based items from scratch. The hope is that the young people will be an innovator instead of a consumer.

According to the website, the organization also offers Robotic workshops, Robotic Clubs, STEAM summer camps, STEAM expos, enhanced after-school STEAM programs, annual Youth Technology conferences, an Engineering After School Program, and a Young Entrepreneurship Program currently in development. Mentoring Youth Through Technology has programs in Illinois, Tennessee and Mississippi. These are states where Carter has connections. The goal is to be in five states, including Michigan and Missouri. During the last six months, the organization has reached about 350 students with its programs.

There are plans for Mentoring Youth Through Technology to have a facility in Matteson. It will be about 2,000 square feet located at Oakwood Park Community Center, 4450 Oakwood Lane.  The anticipated completion date is September of this year.

Currently, Mentoring Youth Through Technology provides services through afterschool and summer programs or workshops. It works with schools, municipalities and other community-based organizations. Carter wanted to be able to house all the programs in one place and service more young people.

“Building a technology center makes us more impactful and gives the kids more exposure to more technology all at once,” Carter said. While the classes are free, there is an application and registration fee, but families are not turned away if they cannot afford to pay the fee.

Carter said the response to Mentoring Youth Through Technology throughout the last 10 years has been overwhelmingly positive. At a recent gala, five students received scholarships. The students are pursuing engineering because of their participation in the program. For more information about Mentoring Youth Through Technology, visit myttil.com.

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