By KAITLYN NAPLES STAFF WRITER What started out in 1989 as a mentoring partnership between the business community and the schools, has evolved into one of the top two mentoring programs in Connecticut. Jeanine Audette, district coordinator of Mentor and School to Business Partnership Programs for the Bristol Board of Education, said there are 200 mentors in the program and five recently joined this month, which is also the state’s Mentoring Month. “It has just grown into something much bigger” from when it started, Audette said. She added that Fred Soliani was the brains behind the mentoring program in Bristol, which is now one of the top three oldest programs in the state. “It’s a really great program because of the response we get from the business community, and the community at large,” Audette said, adding she has been a mentor for 11 years and is friends with her first mentee, who is now in college. “You really realize some of the challenges that are out there in the schools,” Audette said about the experience of mentoring, and added that “it gives you a deeper understanding and appreciation for what you have.” She added that seeing the mentees smile and [...]
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