A director of technology who in his spare time raises snakes?

Yep. It's a guy thing.

The snake-handling tech director was one of many professionals taking part in a recent mentoring workshop at the State University of New York at Oneonta.

Attracting some 100 sixth- and seventh-grade male students from across the Catskill region, the program called "It's A Guy Thing" is modeled after the successful "Women Helping Girls Make Choices" workshop held at the college each spring.

"We want to expose students who come mostly from very rural, resource-poor communities to career opportunities they may never have known about and to the idea that, 'Yeah, let's think about going to college,'" said Mary Ann Luciano, director of the Catskill Regional Teacher Center.

The center co-sponsors the workshops with SUNY Oneonta and Delaware-Chenango-Madison-Otsego BOCES.

Luciano said organizers aim to get at least two professionals from specific career areas, including the arts and humanities, business and information systems, engineering and technology, heath services, human and public services, and natural and agricultural sciences. The response from the region's professional community has been "awesome," she added.

While the boys' workshop serves sixth- and seventh-graders, the girls' program targets students in fifth and sixth grade. Luciano said it is important to focus on kids in those age groups because students in middle school are just becoming aware of careers.

The boys' program is now in its third year; the girls' program has been in operation for a dozen years.

Other professionals who took part in this year's workshops included a female state police investigator and female engineer, the director of the National Soccer Hall of Fame, college professors and even a fence company owner who also works as an actor.

In each case, the message is, "these people all started out by getting a professional credential," Luciano said. "They all went to college."

For information about the workshops and how to get your own students involved, e-mail crtc@oneonta.edu.