REC Mentees

Grow Your Own Talent

By: Kim Moultrie, City of Spartanburg

Modeled after a program in Mecklenburg County, the City of Spartanburg’s the REC Mentee program exposes youth to career opportunities in the parks and recreation field and is designed to empower youth to make positive life choices. Youth who participate are between the ages of 13-18 and have expressed interest in learning more about the career we love. The program is designed to empower youth to make positive life choices and maximize their personal potential. Our REC Mentee program gives kids a “behind-the-scenes” look at the world of parks and recreation. We met Chris Bouknight is the spring of 2013 when we began our partnership with YouthStop, an educational services center and program designed to assist Spartanburg county students in earning a high school diploma and in making a successful transition to college, to occupational training or to the workplace. As a rising junior in high school, Chris was officially our first REC Mentee and joined us primarily for job shadowing opportunities and was paid through YouthStop. Chris has grown from an At Promise youth to an At Promise adult, who now leads many of the programs he participated in as a teenager. He began his career with us as a Summer Camp counselor in 2015 and then transitioned to an Event/Program attendant. Most of his experience has been as a part time Recreation Leader, with programming experience in all of our facilities and many of our parks. In May of the year, Chris was promoted to full time Recreation Leader II. We value his passion to see others progress as he has. His assignment program this Summer is as co facilitator of our Adventure/Explorers camp, a program that prepares youth to become REC Mentees, molding our youth into well rounded, productive adults and hopefully recreation professionals. His ability to meet young men has led to this new program being at capacity, with a waiting list.

2015 2022

June 2015 - Chris’ first position helping with girls all sports camp May 2022 - Chris Bougknight, second from left, with Adventure/Explorers