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World of Difference: Mentoring Can Make a Difference
in a Child's Life
January 22, 2005, Anderson
Independent Mail (South Carolina)
By
JENNIFER JONES
Sixty
minutes, once a week.
January
is National Mentoring Month, putting a spotlight
on how the short time it takes to watch two sitcoms
is all it takes to make a world of difference
in the life of a young person.
From
elementary through high school there are well
over 400 students being mentored through the Legacy
Mentoring Program of Anderson School District
5, according to District 5 Community Involvement
Coordinator Carol Vickery.
Mentors
are asked to spend time one-on-one with a child
a minimum of one hour per week. This might not
seem like a significant amount of time but it's
remarkable how much of a difference a mere lunch
hour can make. Ms. Vickery said she's seen increased
school attendance, academic improvement, behavioral
improvement and marked difference in self-esteem.
"The student walks down the hall with his
head up instead of keeping his head hung because
he thinks he's not as good as everyone else,"
she said.
Many
of the mentors go to lunch with the student and
maybe over to the library to read, she said. If
the student is struggling academically, the mentor
can help them by calling out spelling words, working
on multiplication tables and making sure they
did their homework.
Russell
Harris of Anderson has been mentoring for six
years with Quez Johnson, an eight-grader at Lakeside
Middle School.
His
initial years spent with Quez involved helping
the boy with his coursework as well as providing
structure and guiding in him in everything from
discipline to etiquette. By staying in touch with
his teachers and counselors, he sees what specific
areas he needs to work on with Quez.
He
said he has seen academic improvement in Quez
during the time they've been together.
"(Mentoring)
generally improves the academics and stresses
the importance of academics but equally important
is the role-model side and the disciplinary side,
which is talking to him about what's right and
what he ought to be doing. A mentor becomes an
advocate," Mr. Harris said.
He
said he'd like to help Quez set small and attainable
goals for the future as well as get involved in
constructive outlets offered through his school
and in the community.
"They're
small goals but any change to improve behavior,
to improve grades, to improve manners is important,"
Mr. Harris said.
Ninety-year-old
Peggy Fretwell of Anderson is currently mentoring
her fourth child in five years, a third-grader
at Concord Elementary, and said it's a worthwhile
way to volunteer one's time in a way that's beneficial
for both parties involved.
"The
thing about this is you don't go to instruct.
You go there to support," Mrs. Fretwell said.
"They're just children that need a little
extra attention and to know that somebody cares."
Mentors
help fill a need, whether it's emotionally or
academically, Ms. Vickery said. Some students
are academically strong but have been through
a crisis such as a death, a divorce or a move,
and this is where the mentor steps in.
"Mentoring
gives a child someone else other than a teacher
to bounce ideas off of, someone who devotes one
hour to listening to them, paying attention to
them and making them feel special," said
Anderson resident Amber Rhodes, who mentors a
second-grader and a fifth-grader, the latter for
whom she is now a foster parent as well.
And
that's done simply by sharing lunch and a little
conversation.
"It's
really heart-warming to see the things that can
happen when you get involved in the life of a
child," Ms. Vickery said.
For
more information on becoming a mentor, call (864)
260-5000
Jennifer
Jones can be reached at (864) 260-1251 or by e-mail
at jonesje@IndependentMail.com.
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