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Story Starters: Education Folder: Beyond the Classroom File
Lead: Mentoring relationship positively effects both mentor and mentee
Synopsis
"I don't know that she's learned anything from me. I've learned a lot from her," says City Links mentor, Susanna Barry, turning the traditional idea of mentoring upside down. Rather than think of their relationship as one where an older person helps an inexperienced young adult with guidance and support, Susanna and mentee Jenny Andre have built a relationship based on mutual respect and learning.
Susanna is a mentor with the City Links program in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The program introduces immigrant high school students to mentors with whom they can talk about school, outside interests, and how to plan for life after graduation. The program is loosely structured, allowing for the kind of friendship that has developed between Jenny and Susanna.
Jenny came to the US form Haiti in 1989. She is now a 1st year college student who participated in the mentoring program in her senior year at Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School. She met with Susanna every Tuesday to talk about SAT's, do homework, and sometimes just have a soda and a good time. The two women have kept in touch. Jenny explains, "I can find somebody to talk to whenever I have a problem. Susanna is a very friendly person [who] makes me feel comfortable."
A trusting relationship like this one has many benefits. Lisa Jackson, a professor of education at Boston College, says that mentoring can be beneficial to adolescents coping with change. "A supportive and reciprocal mentoring relationship can provide a youth with a captive audience with whom they can try on different selves and receive feedback." But Jackson adds some words of caution: "Mentoring relationships do not work in a vacuum, and it is important to remember the multiple influences other people in a youth's life may have that could either support the messages provided to the youth by a mentor, or be in direct contradiction."
Dr. Susan G. Weinberger, director of the Norwalk Mentor Program, which pairs mentors with disadvantaged children, notes, "Disbelievers ask, 'How can one hour a week of informal conversation and strategies make a difference?' It isn't a hype, a gimmick, or the like. It is simply someone who cares about you. That is the message. If he cares so much about me, I must be important."
Program
City Links
Cambridge Community Services
99 Bishop Allen Drive
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617) 876-5214
- City Links introduces bilingual students to careers in the public sector, by providing them with mentors and internships.
- It is funded by Cambridge Community Services in collaboration with the Cambridge Public Schools and the City of Cambridge.
- City Links provides mentors for students who are; low income, immigrants, have a C or below average, and have an interest in learning about careers in the public sector. Preference is given to newly immigrated students (have come to the US within the past 3-4 years)
- This program takes about 20 students a year.
- 90% of the program graduates go on to college.
Story Contacts
Jenny Andre, City Links mentee
(617)494-8983
Susanna Barry, City Links mentor
Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development
Tufts University
Medford, MA 02155
(617) 627-3355
Sandra Canas, City Links Program Director
City Links
Cambridge Community Services
99 Bishop Allen Drive
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617) 876-5214
Expert Contacts
Lisa R. Jackson, PhD
School of Education
Boston College
Campion Hall
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
(617) 552-2482
lisa.jackson@bc.edu
Ann Vernon
Professor of Education
University of Northern Iowa
1227 West 2nd St.
Cedar Falls, IA 50614
News Phone: (319) 273-2761
Office Phone: (319) 273-2226
Ann.vernon@uni.edu
Dr. Susan Weinberger, President
Mentor Consulting Group
3 Inwood Road
Norwalk, CT 06850-1017
telephone: 203-846-2244
fax:203-846-9608
sgweinbrgr@aol.com
Background
The Quantum Opportunities Program (1989-1991), funded by the Ford Foundation, showed that high school students from families receiving public assistance who had a mentor were more likely than those who did not to:
- Graduate from high school
- Enroll in college
- Less likely to received food stamps and welfare
- Become involved in the community
Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America 1995 Impact Study showed that young people with mentors were:
- 46% less likely to begin using illegal drugs
- 27% less likely to begin using alcohol
- 53% less likely to skip school
- 37% less likely to skip a class
- 33% less likely to hit someone, than children in the research control groups
In a 1989 Louis Harris Poll:
- 73% of students said their mentors helped raise their goals and expectations.
- 59% of mentored students improved their grades.
References
Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America. 230 North 13th St. Philadelphia, PA 19107. (212) 576-7000. National@bbbsa.org. http://www.bbbsa.org.
One to One/National Mentoring Partnership, 2801 M Street NW, Washington, DC 20007, 202-338-3844.
Redmond, S. P. (1990) Mentoring and cultural diversity in academic settings. American Behavioral Scientist188-200
Rodriguez, G., and Enid, Y. (1995). Mentoring to diversity: A multicultural approach. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education. 69-77.
Related Coverage
Koziol, N. A. (July 20, 1997). Mentors give students a big push in the right direction. Chicago Tribune Education Today section, p, 17.
Clinton to promote mentoring program. (Feb. 4, 1998). The Bulletin's Frontrunner Washington News section.
Compiled by:
Christina Lembo and Stacey Spielman
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