Mentoring Toward Empowerment
12.15.2011
Author: Cara Gardner
For eight Bay Path undergraduates, fall classes included a hefty dose of reality: mentoring at-risk teens at Forest Park Middle School in Springfield. Unlike many mentoring programs, this one focused on developing personal relationships rather than improving academic achievement. It is precisely this personal connection that instructor Simone Matlock-Philips hopes will instill a sense of empowerment – in both mentor and mentee.
The Bay Path students have spent a portion of each Friday at Forest Park Middle School as part of their
Youth Development: Intro to Mentoring elective, working one-on-one with a student over the course of their semester. Most Bay Path students who take this course are interested in working with youth, particularly those categorized as “at-risk.”
Jennifer Charbonneau, a senior majoring in Education, says mentoring a sixth-grader introduced her to a different reality. “I’m from a small town and I didn’t grow up in a place like Springfield so it opened my eyes to what a young person sees on a daily basis living in an urban setting and how strong a they have to be.” Charbonneau says that she was surprised how quickly the student opened up to her about some of his problems at school and at home. “I met with him eight times. In that short amount of time he did a complete 180 with me. When I first met him he was falling behind and wasn’t doing well in school. He hid his feelings. The day I left he was almost in tears.” Charbonneau knows that eight visits can’t transform lives in any sustainable way, but the experience has allowed both herself and the boy she mentored to have access to someone they would never otherwise have known. And that has had a powerful impact on both of them. “All the students [we mentored] were listed as high-risk for dropping out,” she says. “But he is very interested in going to college. So I realized he’s just been labeled by his parents’ poverty. He has so much potential.” Charbonneau says she learned to think critically about the public school system and how some students fall between the cracks. She’s asking more questions about how and why some students fail, and what it is they need to reach their potential.
This is exactly what Instructor Matlock-Philips had hoped for. As they’ve explored the mentorship role – what it is, how it’s developed, and the purposes of mentoring– the Bay Path students wrote in journals that reflect on their volunteer experience in a public school. The journals help students “identify those factors which may negatively affect the social, emotional, and cognitive development of adolescent youth and find ways to empower them and build resilience,” says Matlock-Philips.
“Most of these middle-school students are vulnerable to many negative life outcomes that are significantly influenced by poverty. Mentors provide a supportive, nurturing relationship that will influence their healthy development,” says Matlock-Philips. And this, ultimately, is what the college students’ reality check is about: the discovery that mentorship is not simply helping someone with their homework; it’s about being engaged in their lives.
The students ended their mentorship project with the conclusion of the class, but Charbonneau says she plans to continue reaching out to the 6th grader she worked with. “I’ll try and visit him and continue the mentorship role outside school.”
