Mentoring in Local Schools

I got that warm, fuzzy feeling in my heart when I read this article recently about Senator Tom Harkin (who happens to be the chair of the Senate HELP committee) and Jevon Carter, a 10-yr-old student that Sen. Harkin mentors at a local elementary school. I applaud Sen. Harkin for his dedication to education and his willingness to lead by example when it comes to education reform. I have a special place in my heart for mentors, right next to the teachers, because I know how difficult, yet rewarding, that it can be.

Mentoring is something I kind of fell into. I got involved with Project AIM (achievement involving mentoring) and the Starkville School District as part of a community service requirement for a leadership class I was taking in the spring of 2009. But I fell in love with the program and sort of stuck around. Project AIM’s director Cathy Curtis explains the program by saying,

“The crux of what we do is one-on-one mentoring that complements the student’s participation.” … “The mentors usually spend the first 30 to 40 minutes helping the student with homework, then they spend the rest of their time playing games, talking and just getting to know each other.”

Basically, Project Aim is an hour of your time each week that could make all the difference in the life of a struggling or under-appreciated local student. During my time with Project AIM, I’ve worked with two different girls at Armstrong Middle School. Every student in the program is unique and therefore has unique needs. My first student was loud, needed help with history and science, liked to play Connect 4, and loved to go bowling or to the movies. My second student was much more quiet, had trouble with grades but was determined to do better, liked to play history trivia games, and desperately needed someone to listen to her.

Mrs. Curtis can attest that many students in the program improve their grades or their disciplinary referral record after being involved in the mentoring program. Instead of focusing solely on academic achievement, or behavioral reform--- mentors have a unique ability to approach the student not as an authority figure but as a friend.

On a slightly related note, The Stennis Institute hosted a Bridges Out of Poverty seminar recently, and the keynote speaker addressed the importance of coupling relationships with personal achievement. You can’t just establish programs and tell people what to do if you want to help them get out of their depressed situation. You have to establish relationships with them to help them grow a positive network of individuals who can and want to help them. Although our keynote speaker was talking about poverty, I think this philosophy is directly applicable to struggling students, and I think this is why programs like Project AIM work. Senator Harkin doesn’t just tell Jevon that he has to get better grades in reading if he wants to go to college and make more money; Senator Harkin gives up a lunch date with a lobbyist to go to Jevon’s school to read with him.

After two years and two students with the Project AIM, I will admit that not every day was easy, but I was always left with the feeling that I had drawn more from the experience than they had. So this is my heartfelt plea to all of you who think your life is hard, to all of you who think you have no time, to all of you who complain about chemistry homework that keeps you awake at night---there is some student in this community who can show you how to be a better and more thankful version of yourself.

To those of you Starkville-ians that read the paper more religiously than I do, you know that Project AIM has been running a recent plug in the SDN. If you overlooked or dismissed it, I ask you to reconsider. Mrs. Curtis is in the process of recruiting mentors for the fall semester, and would love to talk to you about a commitment. Her number is 418-4021. Mentor training will begin the first week of August.

Gratitude to Old Teachers

When we stride or stroll across the frozen lake,
We place our feet where they have never been.
We walk upon the unwalked. But we are uneasy.
Who is down there but our old teachers?

Water that once could take no human weight-
We were students then-holds up our feet,
And goes on ahead of us for a mile.
Beneath us the teachers, and around us the stillness.

-Robert Bly