The Rewards of Mentoring

At dozens of public schools around the state, something great is going on before class, after class, even in-between classes. Learning. Elementary, middle-school, and high school students are receiving special instruction in a range of topics. Sometimes the students are gifted. Sometimes they’re challenged by special circumstances. Always, their college student mentors are teaching, as well as being role models, good listeners, and careful advisers. But these mentors are learning too, about the power of a young person’s curiosity, intelligence, and motivation.

Not just tutors. Mentors.

When Nancy Lee, a Pace University senior with a nursing major, decided to become involved in the Pace Hispanic Outreach Program (PHOP), she did so because she loved tutoring and because she wanted the credential to use on her resume.

Nancy still loves tutoring. And she’s happy she has the experience to cite when she goes job-hunting. But now she’s more grateful for the experience of mentoring than any advantage she has in looking for a job.

Pace University’s mentoring program started 12 years ago as a collaborative effort between the White Plains City School District, Pace University, and the community organization Centro Hispano. The partnership, which was recently recognized as one of 15 model programs by the White House’s “High Hopes for College for America’s Youth” initiative, pairs Hispanic students with Pace University students who serve as tutors and role models, providing guidance on academic, social, and economic issues.

When Nancy signed on with PHOP, her Spanish was a little rusty. “My particular obstacle was that I did not speak fluent Spanish. Early on, the Spanish/English dictionary became my best friend, but as I practiced, all those Spanish classes from high school came back to me. Communication became easier with my students, but in the meantime their English skills improved because they were really forced to use what English they knew. They were forced to use their dictionaries and their own knowledge to communicate with me. We met in the middle, and it was interesting how my language barrier became a benefit to us both.”

By 1999-2000, the program had grown from 14 White Plains students, five Pace University tutors, and 151 tutorial hours to 136 students from White Plains, 21 Pace tutors, and 8,650 tutorial hours. At the end of 2000, there were 65 students in PHOP, with 32 on a waiting list.

The program inspires and guides dozens of Hispanic students toward a goal that they can now do more than just dream about: a college education. Formal evaluations show that 100 percent of PHOP graduates plan to attend college, compared with only 32 percent of Hispanic high school seniors nationwide.*

*Latino Education, State of Hispanic America, 1998

Mentoring matters.

The effect of mentoring is measured in lives changed, hearts touched, goals accomplished, aspirations given room for expression. Here’s a list of some mentoring programs found throughout the state.

Adelphi University’s GEAR UP Long Island enables Adelphi to improve the college and career options of middle-school students in two Long Island school districts. And through the university’s Community Service program, graduate students work with children and adults in Manhattan’s Lower East Side and Chinatown communities.

The Albany College of Pharmacy sponsors a six-week program for high school seniors to increase interest in science and pharmacy. Pharmacy students also participate in one-on-one and group mentoring activities with clients of the Parsons Child and Family Center.

Bank Street College of Education serves at-risk youth through its 10-year-old Liberty Partnership Program, which has a 100 percent high school completion rate with 98 percent of students continuing their education.

Through Canisius College’s partnership with Hamlin Park School #74, education majors work with teachers to provide tutorial services, mentoring, test preparation, physical education, and computer instruction to students in pre-K through grade eight. Canisius also sponsors a National Youth Sports Program for 10 through16 year old boys and girls during the summer, which is free and open to all community children.

The College of New Rochelle’s QUEST mentoring program serves gifted children, nurturing their abilities and interests. The college also sponsors a music program which gives economically disadvantaged youngsters the chance to make music and offers lessons at minimal costs.

Columbia University’s Double Discovery Center mentors 1,000 neighborhood, first-generation college-bound children on an annual basis. Nearly 100 percent of these children graduate high school and 66 percent complete college within four years. The university’s Harlem Tutorial Program links Columbia Business and Law School students with junior high students from New York Prep, a Harlem public school. And there’s more: Columbia’s other mentoring programs such as Asian Youth, Big Brother/Big Sister, and Mentor High School Extension, add up to 8,736 hours of mentoring per year.

Daemen College has been able to partner with the City of Buffalo thanks to a renewable five-year Eisenhower Initiative grant. The focus is on improving student math and science achievement in four city schools. .

D’Youville College has teamed up with Canisius, Medaille, Trocaire, and Villa Maria Colleges and Buffalo State as well as schools and business and community organizations in a GEAR UP program. The mentoring effort is expected to benefit 900 students in Buffalo in its first year of operation.

Student volunteers from Elmira College work one-on-one with more than 200 area schoolchildren through PAL, the Pupil Assistance in Learning program.

Fordham University’s St. Martin of Tours Enrichment Program pairs Fordham undergraduates with students from St. Martin of Tours middle school in the Bronx. This intensive mentoring program seeks to bolster the study skills of these middle-school youngsters by building relationships based on trust, give-and-take, and enthusiastic expectation. Fordham also is a partner in the Bronx Educational Alliance, which manages a GEAR UP program involving Fordham’s Graduate School of Education and two local school districts. .

At Hobart and William Smith Colleges, the Geneva Heroes reach out to 20 eighth-graders in a 10-week program and mentor them in team-building, leadership, and service activities..

Houghton College’s Wilderness Adventures program offers experiential learning and team-building in the outdoors to at-risk youth, providing training in building leadership and trust.

Iona College’s Success Center mentors help children from area schools tackle homework and discuss personal problems three afternoons a week..

Ithaca College has established partnerships with Ithaca’s South Hill Elementary School, Longview (an older adult residential facility), and the Frederick Douglass Academy (FDA) in Harlem. The alliance with the FDA, which is acclaimed for its devotion to academic rigor and student achievement, is enhancing educational opportunity for both Ithaca and FDA students.

At Manhattan College: environmental engineering students work with students from a Yonkers high school; the Mathematics Enrichment and Mentoring Program for Bronx Middle School Girls provides enrichment activities outside of class where undergraduate women are role models for middle-school girls; electronic tutoring is offered at three Bronx schools and one Manhattan school; a mentoring program focused on reading is offered in the Parkchester section of the Bronx; Collegians, Community Kids and Computers matches an upper-level college student with homeless or at-risk students; ProjectCHAMP matches student volunteers to individuals with disabilities; the EQUITY 2000 project is a mathematics enrichment program for middle-school children; and in ETAP, Manhattan College students tutor pupils from the Bronx in math using an on-line tutorial program.

Manhattanville College has partnered with the Coachmen Family Center in mentoring relationships.

Marist College students mentor children in the Poughkeepsie City School District and at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Elementary School in Poughkeepsie.

Mount Saint Mary College’s Big Brothers/Big Sisters Buddy-Up Program is a volunteer mentoring program that matches students with children in need. The Buddies meet twice monthly on Sunday afternoons for special activities.

Nazareth College’s Partners for Learning program is an innovative relationship with Rochester City Schools which received a 1995 President’s Service Award. In the program, Nazareth students are tutors and classroom assistants at six school sites and have provided more than 14,900 hours of service in 1999-2000.

New York Medical College’s mentoring program provides guidance for minority students who show promise in the health sciences.

New York University’s Project MUST (Mentoring Urban Students for Teachers) helps inner-city secondary school students to gain the confidence to pursue a college education; the university’s GEAR UP Harlem program offers a comprehensive package of early intervention services to prepare students in grades 6-12 for college; and its Liberty Partnerships Mentoring Program, a dropout prevention initiative.

Niagara University’s Learn & Serve Niagara partners with eight local school districts and three community agencies to provide tutoring and mentoring services to an estimated 2,500 elementary schoolchildren. The project involves more than 500 Niagara University students who each provide up to five hours of tutoring a week.

Polytechnic University’s Youth in Engineering & Science (YES) Center is an outreach program for high school students that encourages young people, especially women and minorities, to choose careers in science and engineering.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Project RAISE, part of New York’s GEAR UP program, is oriented toward seventh graders who hope to go to college. One goal of the program is to increase the number of disadvantaged and minority students who pursue science careers. With help from a county grant, Rensselaer also offered about 20 local youths preparation for the Information Age last summer during a six-week technology workshop. The university partnered with The Ark, a community agency, in offering the workshop.

St. Bonaventure University’s Bona Buddies, a Big Brother/Big Sister-type program, matches St. Bonaventure students with area children for mentoring activities.

St. Joseph’s College’s Patchogue summer program, Spotlight on Children, uses the dramatic arts to build esteem in children from low-income families who live in communities around the college. The program also offers after-school creative drama sessions during the school year to children from three local schools.

St. Lawrence University’s Big Brother/Big Sisters program engages St. Lawrence students with area children in one-on-one and group mentoring events.

At St. Thomas Aquinas College, the Marie Curie Mathematics & Science Center conducts a Saturday Morning Search for Solutions program for seventh and eighth graders. The college’s Science Mentoring Program provides training to secondary school science teachers that could be used to encourage students to pursue a career in the sciences.

Skidmore College students use high-tech and traditional methods to mentor students at PS 6 elementary school in Manhattan. The program features on-site visits and ongoing communication between pupil and mentor using e-mail and a secure website journal.

Syracuse University’s Alumni Mentoring Program with the High School for Leadership and Public Service in New York City is the second largest mentoring group in the city. Every student involved in this program has attended college after graduation from high school. The university’s Balancing the Books Mentoring Program provides middle-school children with tutors, mentors, and role models who guide a child’s transition to high school.

Union College’s Big Brothers/Big Sisters program serves more than 100 children annually and its summer program ensures that the children remain linked with their mentors year-round. The college also offers a special mentoring program for neighborhood children. In this program, local teachers trained 40 Union students on how to prepare children for the New York State elementary school assessment tests.

Utica College’s Young Scholars Liberty Partnership Program (a collaboration with the Utica City School District) has been helping junior high and high school students reach the goal of attending college. Since its inception in 1993, the program has helped hundreds of students who were at risk financially and socially.

Vassar College’s PEACE (Promoting Equality and Community Everywhere) Program is a nonprofit national organization devoted to eliminating prejudices and racism. PEACE’s Brothers and Sisters program establishes relationships among children of different races, ethnicities, and religions, helping to instill tolerance.

At Wagner College’s mentoring program, 20 Wagner students meet daily at the Anning S. Prall Intermediate School on Staten Island to work with youngsters in need.

Wells College students serve as tutors in the Scholastic Training Equals Progress (STEP) program, which assists primarily minority students to acquire the tools needed to graduate high school and achieve goals after graduation. In Wells' Mentoring Alliance, volunteers from the college attend weekly sessions with teenage girls and serve as basketball coaches and mentors. Students also serve as tutors in the Homework Clinic, helping middle-school children with homework issues.

Yeshiva University students are mentors in a number of informal ways, including volunteering at summer camps and acting as counselors for children with mental and physical disabilities.

Helping schoolchildren GEAR UP.

GEAR UP stands for Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs and is a federal initiative to help low-income youth prepare for college. Private colleges and universities involved with the GEAR UP program are Adelphi University, The College of New Rochelle, Dowling College, D’Youville College, Fordham University, Hofstra University, Iona College, Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus, Manhattanville College, Mercy College, New York University, Pace University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rochester Institute of Technology, St. John’s University, and Syracuse University.