A unique public/private collaboration of colleges (City University of New York, Fordham University, New York University, St. John's University, and Teachers College at Columbia University) and high schools in New York City is described. The collaborative model's purpose is to attract talented minority high school students to teaching and related educational careers, and to present evaluative data that measure the impact of student participation and long-range outcomes. MENTOR in Education, designed to interest high school students in pursuing careers in teaching, provides a laboratory for joint planning among public and private graduate institutions and the New York City Board of Education. The program also explores alternative approaches to teacher preparation in an urban setting. It is funded by the New York Alliance for the Public Schools, a coalition of civic, corporate, and educational leaders in New York City. Its main components, involving 125 high school juniors and seniors each semester, are peer teaching and work with younger children, college seminars and workshops, site visits to specialized schools, and activities such as journals, micro-teaching, and lesson planning. The mentoring process has been reinforced on several levels: students find their greatest satisfaction in the act of teaching; recruitment into the program has been strengthened by its institutionalization in the respective high school/college pairings and the addition of extrinsic rewards for participation; and extended participation reinforces the mentor experience. Student participant surveys, teacher evaluations, site visits, and follow-up interviews revealed the following: predominance of female participants; participant racial breakdown--49.2% black, 31.2% white, 7.8% Asian, and 9.8% white; greater knowledge about teacher training; and greater awareness of careers in education other than teaching. To alleviate the shortage of minority teachers, new strategies are needed to identify potential candidates at an early phase in career development and provide support systems to sustain them. Two appendices include the MENTOR in Education final student survey and follow-up survey. Tables are included. Contains 9 references. (SM)