A Community/school Mentoring Program for Elementary Students (1999)

Windermere Boulevard School is growing suburban elementary school with children from diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. In an attempt to provide comprehensive counseling program to meet the increasing enrollment and wide variety of students' needs, and to promote the benefits of counseling programs in this community, the school counselor collaborated with civic-minded community members to develop mentoring program. The New York State Mentoring Program Training Manual (1991) defines mentoring as a supportive one-to-one relationship between an adult and child, developed to facilitate the child's educational, social, and personal growth (p.1). The mentor's function is one of being supporter and active listener. The mentor is not there to lecture or criticize, but to be facilitator or coach. The mentor can be source of encouragement. Overall, mentors are role models demonstrating to students that goals and dreams can be achieved. Mentors and mentees might discuss variety of topics-exploring how things are going at school, relating school issues with home issues, discussing and validating the child's interests and strengths, problem solving an issue, or brainstorming future personal and career goals. Mentoring has frequently been used to assist students in school settings. Researchers indicate that students who are provided an opportunity to form supportive relationship with mentor achieve better grades, establish goals and aspirations, and enhance self-esteem (Green, 1993; Morgan, 1993; Nasrallah, 1992). Lee (1995) states that mentoring is promising educational approach for students who need individual attention. Further, students who have mentors complete more years of education than do those who do not receive mentoring (Torrance, 1984). Current research appears to support the implementation of mentor programs as successful approach to meet students' individual needs. The following mentoring program was developed to (a) foster supportive relationship between child and adult that would enhance self-confidence in the child; (b) expose participating students to experiences in which they might not otherwise have the opportunity to partake; (c) develop partnership with community members who feel personal investment with child and in the child's future; (d) further the understanding of the community of the educational process and the rewards and challenges of educating children today; (e) promote school counseling programs by having influential members of the community serve as ambassadors for counseling programs as result of this experience; and, (f) provide schools with another supportive program to reach the needs of diverse population. Initiation The program began with contact from the local Williamsville Rotary Club. Club members wished to interact with young people in some meaningful way. The counselor met with the appointed person from the Rotary and, with administrative support, began to formulate plan to have Rotarians meet with students on school grounds. Mandatory orientation of mentors, mentees, and parents; administrative and teacher support; and adequate meeting space were all critical to the success of the initial stages of the program. It was important that all of the people involved understood their roles and the purpose of the program. Mentee Characteristics A letter was sent to teachers with an explanation of the program. As pilot program, there was limit to the number of students who could participate. Teachers were asked to recommend boy or girl between the ages of 7 and 11 who might benefit from one-to-one relationship with positive adult, gain from mentor's sharing life experiences, or need an extra boost of confidence. Parents of these students were contacted by both letter and phone and were asked to talk to their child about participating in the program. If the family agreed, permission slip was signed and returned to the counselor. …