Community involvement with the Innovation Ridge CAPS program is an essential piece to making it successful, plus it is simple, and you can get involved in many ways.  From providing guidance in the day to day hands on learning, to ensuring curriculum is industry relevant, or speaking to students about how they can grow professionally, volunteers are needed at every level.  
​

mentor
Being a mentor involves spending time with CAPS students from just an hour a week to many hours per month. Mentors serve to supplement Innovation Ridge CAPS instructors by providing advice and direction for students in their fields of expertise.  Recognizing the busy schedules of working professionals, and the capability of technology, we also see the opportunity for meetings to be held in a meaningful way via video chat or phone calls as well when needed. 

The success of the CAPS program heavily depends on the wealth of wisdom and resources that volunteer mentors provide to CAPS students. Interested in becoming a mentor? contact CAPS Admin Team 

business client
Have something that’s been #10 on your businesses to do list, and it never seems to rise to the top?  That is the perfect project opportunity for an Innovation Ridge CAPS students. Students are highly capable of solving complex issues, and they come to CAPS eager to tackle real life projects. 

To facilitate the learning process for our CAPS students, we seek to find meaningful partner projects from local businesses and organizations. Business clients benefit by outsourcing work to local students at no cost while receiving thoughtful solutions from students and mentors. Additionally, CAPS partners receive tremendous exposure to their businesses and places of work.

We are currently seeking projects for next semester in the following areas: 

• Business, Marketing, and Entrepreneurship

• Engineering and Industrial Design

• Medicine and Health

Do you have a project idea or need? PROJECT REQUEST FORM

​Project questions? contact  CAPS Admin Team 

speaker
Each month we will feature a new speaker that can share their knowledge and expertise across all CAPS programs to enhance students industry knowledge and professional skills.  Speaker topics would ideally span all CAPS strands so that all students can be involved. For example, potential topics listed below, but we are open to ideas based on expertise

• Networking - The importance of, and how to build it

• SMART goals - setting and achieving them

• Job Application - Resume, cover letter, and portfolio building

• Education vs Field Experience - what’s more important when applying

• Career Timeline - How to set and achieve

• Communication etiquette in the modern world   

• Social Media - Proper etiquette, and the role of social media in getting hired

advisory board
As a professionally focused program, we want to ensure that our content areas are constantly on the forefront of industry standards and expectations.  Students that successfully complete an Innovation Ridge CAPS program should be able to directly apply the skills learned in class to an entry level position in their field of interest.  To help the programs remain cutting edge and relevant, we need regular input from industry professionals 

donate
In addition to serving as project partners and providing excellent mentoring to Innovation Ridge CAPS students, community members may give monetarily to the CAPS program to advance learning and development opportunities.

Gifts may be used for scholarships, travel expenses, materials, equipment, and other useful items which will bolster the Innovation Ridge CAPS program.  As a part of Ridgefield School District, Innovation Ridge is a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization and donations to the CAPS program are tax deductible. 

If you are interested in providing a gift to the Innovation Ridge CAPS program, please contact Tiffany Gould..