Local Coaches' Support of Mentoring

Leedey Public Schools' BISON coaches support mentoring,
Team Oklahoma, and the Coaches' Mentoring Challenge.
Head Baseball Coach Eric Castle, Elementary Basketball
Coach Kris Gore, Head Girls' Basketball Coach Leah Beer,
and Head Boys' Basketball Coach Lance Carpenter
all are B.I.S.O.N. Mentors, too. 11-10-15

Below are ideas borrowed from Team Oklahoma in the Coaches' Mentoring Challenge. OSU's Coach Mike Gundy and OU's Coach Bob Stoops will co-captain Team Oklahoma in this multi-state new mentor recruiting campaign. Kansas State University's Coach Bill Snyder and University of Nebraska's Coach Tom Osborne began the challenge in 2008.

Why Coaches?

• Coaches are natural group mentors. 

• Their upperclassmen peer mentor younger teammates.

• Fans respect and follow coaches so their voices matter.

Coaching and mentoring are synonymous, and we salute all coaches who have shaped and are shaping young men and women into citizens of character, action, and discipline.

Coaches cannot mentor every youth in their towns, but they can use their considerable influence to advocate for mentoring, recruit new mentors, and/or spur a pilot mentoring program where none exists.

Requirement for Endorsing the Challenge/Mentoring
The only requirement for signing up for the challenge is that the Boren Mentoring Initiative is allowed to use coaches' photos and endorsement in PR and social media to advocate mentoring and recruiting new mentors.

Rogers State University Coaches with
mentors and mentees, July 2016

Above is another example of a group photo coaches at RSU in Claremore took to endorse mentoring. Pictured are Director of Athletics Ryan Erwin, Golf Coach Josh Fosdick, Cross Country/Track and Field Coach Chris McCormick, Baseball Coach Chris Klimas, Men’s Basketball Coach Justin Barkley, and Men’s Soccer Derek Larkin.

Optional Ways to Support the Coaches’ Mentoring Challenge (and mentoring all through the year)

Anywhere on Campus or at a Staff Meeting

Pose with signs supporting mentoring and send us the photo. (See above.)

At a Game

• Allow mentoring programs to host a mentor recruitment table at a home game. 

• Allow a mentoring public service announcement to be read over the loudspeaker during one or more home games. Or prerecord your own public service announcement.

• Provide a limited number of free game tickets for mentors/mentees to attend a game and/or a receive a free concession item.

• Give mentors/mentees a moment for on-field recognition.

• As a group, allow mentors/mentees to meet you and your players for autographs

• Spotlight any of your team or fellow coaches who mentor.

Within Your Community

• Encourage athletes, parents, fellow coaches and fans to become mentors.

• Issue a local press release in partnership with community mentoring programs.

• Print and display Coaches’ Mentoring Challenge or mentoring posters in the school or on campus or have students design their own.

• Share your own mentoring stories with local civic and religious groups to recruit mentors.

On Social Media

• Post photos and updates about your involvement in mentoring or the Coaches’ Mentoring Challenge to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or other social media outlets. Please include the hashtag #okcoacheschallenge at the end of your post.

• Send photos with captions and news of your efforts to bwoodrome@ofe.org. Please note that students under 18 must have parent/guardian permission to publish photos in print and online.

Advocate or endorse the development of a local mentoring program, such as:

• A peer mentoring program on your campus for upperclassmen mentoring freshmen.

• A program for college or high school students to mentor elementary and middle school students.

• Career-oriented mentoring program by community professionals for high school and college students.

• After practice one evening a week, have a team mentoring program, such as Camp Fire Club or some other mentoring model that teaches life skills, community service, and outdoor activities. Your team could also serve as peer mentors to younger students.

[On 7-12-16, we visited with Sara Williams, Rogers State University's Assistant AD, and we can hardly wait to post the creative ways RSU athletes mentor and/or interact with community youth. Stay tuned!]

http://okcoacheschallenge.org/

Ret. 7-11-16

Mayor Bartlett's Mentoring to the Max Breakfast 2016, Part II

As mentioned previously, outstanding northeastern Oklahoma mentors, honored at Oklahoma Mentor Day at the State Capitol, were listed on the back of the event program and asked to stand to be recognized at the Mentoring to the Max Mentoring Breakfast with Mayor Dewey F. Bartlett, Jr.

Program back

Mayor Bartlett's Points

• January is National Mentoring Month.
• Tulsa Regional Chamber's Partner in Education Program for over 30 years has driven a highly successful collaboration between business and the schools.
• The City of Tulsa supports mentoring through career awareness, e.g., developing different types of career academies. 

     ~  Aerospace Academy (See previous post.)

     ~  Possible internships with the Tulsa Housing Authority 

         to provide high school students with internships to 

         learn about construction.

   
First Lady Victoria Bartlett's Points

• Emerson Elementary School's partnership with the City of Tulsa

     ~ Lunch buddies

     ~ Reading books to classes

     ~ Educating or engaging students on planning topics

     ~ Her riding with Emerson's Bike Club to City Hall 

• Now several bike organizations have adopted seven Tulsa schools to give children a fun, biking experience.

Mayor Bartlett said about her, "She's the heart behind our community-wide mentoring efforts and is our youth's Number 1 champion."

2015 Coaches' Mentoring Challenge New Mentors for Oklahoma

Beverly Woodrome, director of the Boren Mentoring Initiative, announced the number of new mentors recruited by Oklahoma mentoring programs during the 2015 Coaches' Mentoring Challenge: 3,821. She also thanked Mayor Bartlett and the City of Tulsa for its mentoring efforts and then reminded the audience that he is one of a handful of "Mayors for Mentoring" nationally recognized by MENTOR, the National Mentoring Partnership, for his mentoring advocacy and strategies. Mayors must have a list of mentoring-related accomplishments, initiatives, and pro-mentoring public announcements to be considered for this honor.

http://www.mentoring.org/our-work/campaigns/mayors-for-mentoring/ 

Surprise for the Bartletts!
Seeing Emerson Elementary School's principal Tammy States present with some students was not unusual because of the City's partnership with the school. Woodrome, however, then invited the three students to the podium. These Emerson sixth graders--Aiden and Jacob Joseph and Sylvester Calvin--bore gifts bags!

Aiden and Jacob Joseph and Sylvester Calvin, presenting on 
behalf of grateful Emerson Elementary School mentees, watch the 
Bartletts open their gifts. The Mayor received a "Mentor Tie" 
and the First Lady, a custom-embroidered mentoring apron.

As the event was ending, Mayor Bartlett immediately walked 
stage right in view of all, removed his jacket and tie, and put on the 
mentor tie the Emerson mentees had brought. Leaving early 
for another meeting, he was determined to wear his mentor tie. 
[Don't you just love Mayor Bartlett?] 

Mayor Bartlett with Aiden and Jacob Joseph and Sylvester Calvin

The Joseph twins, Sylvester Calvin stand in front of 

First Lady Bartlett and Mike Neal, chairman of the Tulsa Regional Chamber.

Cell phone photo

First Lady Victoria Bartlett and Pam Listar are listening intently.
Although this is not a sophisticated shot, the details on the apron 
presented to the First Lady are more visible. On the bib is the 
purple and blue Mentoring to the Max logo, and by her left 
hand  embroidered on the pocket in purple lettering
with a red heart image is "I 'heart' Tulsa Mentors."
Cell phone photo

Oklahoma State University's Dr. Jason Kirksey, Vice President 

for Institutional Diversity, who attended the breakfast on behalf 

of the Oklahoma Louis Stokes Minority Participation Alliance 

(OK-LSAMP), enjoyed meeting the Bartletts. 

Emily Harris, mentoring program director, and Treasure Sandeford,
executive director, both of the Boys & Girls Club of Nowata, take a
moment to pose with First Lady Victoria and Mayor Dewey Bartlett. 

Professional event photos provided by Pam Listar, communications director, City of Tulsa

____________________________________________

Notice that Mayor Dewey and First Lady Victoria Bartlett were among those honored on Oklahoma Mentor Day at the State Capitol on January 8, 2016. The certificate of each featured his or her name and read:

"Mentoring to the Max

City of Tulsa

In recognition of making a profound difference in the lives

 of youth through mentoring advocacy and leadership"

David L. Boren, chairman of the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence, 

presents outstanding mentor tokens to Tulsa Mayor Dewey F. Barlett 

and First Lady Victoria Bartlett. Anil Gollahalli, president of the 

Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence, assisted in the presentation.

Photo by Travis Caperton, Capitol photographer 

__________________________________________

About the Mentor Tie

Briefly, the online search for the right mentor tie brought the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence back to Dr. Susan Weinberger, a.k.a. Dr. Mentor, the consultant whom our former director Charlotte Jones had brought in to begin the Boren Mentoring Initiative and help with the Local Education Foundation Outreach. Woodrome, the current BMI director, not only became acquainted through many phone calls and emails but also developed a friendship with and appreciation of Dr. Weinberger on multiple levels.

The money for these classy, fine quality silk mentor ties is actually a donation to the Norwalk Mentor Scholarship, Dollars for Scholars, in Norwalk, Connecticut. 

http://www.mentorconsultinggroup.com/bookstore.html 

We were thrilled to be able to assist these appreciative students in honoring the Mayor and First Lady.

Mayor Bartlett's Mentoring to the Max Breakfast 2016, Part I

For the past few years, we have been honored and excited to attend the Mentoring to the Max Breakfast with Tulsa Mayor Dewey F. Bartlett, Jr. Each year the breakfast's programming differs but always informs the community and promotes mentoring, especially in the Tulsa area. What Tulsa is doing, however, is applicable everywhere.

View toward the stage and podium

This year Mayor and First Lady Bartlett and Kuma Browne Roberts,  program manager for Partners in Education for the Tulsa Regional Chamber as well as co-planner and co-host for the annual event, decided to recognize northeastern Oklahoma mentors who were honored at Oklahoma Mentor Day earlier in January. On the back of the event program was a list of those honorees (See below.). Also, during the event, Mayor Bartlett asked those outstanding mentors to stand. Northeastern Oklahoma representatives from all of the Boren Mentoring Initiative's network were also invited to attend.

Mayor Bartlett listens as First Lady Victoria Bartlett
shares information about Tulsa mentoring.

This blogger's summary from the breakfast:

Explore Downtown Tulsa

The George Kaiser Foundation in Tulsa began the Explore Downtown Tulsa program and Tulsa Community Foundation supports it. Explore Downtown Tulsa is a vehicle to get inner city poor kids to connect with the community and see a vision for the future.
http://www.exploredowntowntulsa.com/

Road Trip for Teachers 

The purpose of this initiative is to get teachers into businesses to see and also learn about skills industries need for the future workforce. 
 https://www.rose.edu/content/news-events/news/2015/07/28/oklahoma-education-and-industry-partnership-draws-the-attention-of-the-governor/. 

Note: Ben Robinson began something similar for Boeing in Oklahoma City and has been expanding the program. Some Oklahoma City teachers involved in this program have also been to NORDAM and other Tulsa companies.

Tulsa Road Trip for Teachers program links: http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/manufacturing/teachers-tour-broken-arrow-manufacturers/article_dac073d4-6ffe-5dec-8803-0072e64ddae3.html?_dc=374245963990.68835

https://storify.com/WylieWorks4You/road-trip-for-teachers-professional-services

Front of program -
Back of program in following post

InterninTulsa

http://www.internintulsa.com/ 

Three aerospace engineers from NORDAM spoke about NORDAM’s long-time, highly successful program. Interns spend 12-weeks at NORDAM to receive a high-quality experience. They are taught presentation skills, take personality and aptitude tests designed for industry, are matched with an engineering mentor, and actually work on a current NORDAM project. Brock Lindsey, the youngest engineer, was himself an intern while in college. When Lindsey graduated, he took his internship certificate, applied for a job, was hired, and has now had seven mentors of his own at NORDAM.

PDF guide about how to start an internship program 

http://ww3.tulsachamber.com/upload/file/intern%20in%20tulsa%20media/2014%20Hire%20Education%20Guide%20Web.pdf 

Virtual Job Shadow 

Rana McVay of Tulsa Public Schools introduced this program. After it was brought to her attention and TPS researched it, TPS bought it. Dee Phillips-Goodnight, an East Central High School teacher, and Landon Wolf, one of her students who has used the program extensively, spoke about it. Using the program has proven so successful, that the Tulsa Partners in Education (Chamber) and TPS are making virtual job shadow videos for the Tulsa area businesses—not associated with the VJS program but based upon its video models. Virtual Job Shadow has interactive activities such as résumés, etc. Surely, a consortium of businesses and/or the foundation could launch a pilot of VJS to evaluate results in OKCPS. Or not. https://www.virtualjobshadow.com/

  First Aerospace Academy

“With the support of Tulsa Tech and Tulsa Public Schools, the first-ever Aerospace Academy in the state launched Aug. 17, 2015 at Tulsa Tech/R.L. Jones Airport. When high school students complete this program, they’ll not only receive a high school diploma and training from the Aerospace Academy, they can attend Tulsa Community College through the Tulsa Achieves program and receive an associate’s degree in a technical discipline, all for free.” http://www.tulsacc.edu/degrees-and-certificates/tulsa-achieves 

Early Childhood Initiative 

Last but not least, the First Lady was approached to spearhead an early childhood program that doesn’t have city, state, or federal money. She has been going into churches and speaking with pastors to begin birth to school-age, i.e., early childhood education, conversations, so that economically challenged children will not enter school with 400-word vocabularies. The average child enters with about a 1500-word vocabulary according to research. 

Follow-up: The church/faith-based early childhood initiative is in the very beginning stages. The First Lady just began visiting with the pastors about this initiative, which is supported by the George Kaiser Family Foundation. The purpose is to engage low-income parents about the importance of interacting with young infants to help with the first formative years of their lives. Educational messages will target low-income families with a three-prong approach: faith-based communities; medical; and the business community.

[Note: Ultimately, this could result in more religious institutions' beginning specific programs for early childhood and families.The potential is enormous.]

These two Tulsa Public School mentees had a very
important part in the program. See the next blog post.

Other cities across the country have taken on this initiative and because Tulsa is already recognized as the best place in America for Early Childhood Education – through its Educare program – Tulsa wants to be recognized as the national leader in this effort to engage babies from birth with verbal communications: talking, singing, reading, playing, etc.

Thanks to Tulsa Regional Chamber and its wildly successful Partners in Education program.




Photos graciously provided by: 
Pam Listar
Communications Officer
City of Tulsa Communications Department

Social Media Lessons from Rugby...

6 Social Media Marketing Lessons from the Rugby World Cup 2015

By Hootsuite

12 OCTOBER 2015

Is there any sport more social than Rugby? It is widely regarded as one of the toughest games on the planet and its high-speed, hard-hitting nature earned it the moniker of “a hooligan’s sport played by gentlemen.” But rugby also offers one of the most fun-loving, welcoming atmospheres on the global sports landscape and social media is playing a growing part in the sport’s success. With the 2015 Rugby World Cup in full swing, we look at some social media campaigns and marketing lessons from #RWC2015, the six-week celebration of all things rugby.

Image courtesy of The All Blacks

Social is the new (All) Black

@AllBlacks : 515K Twitter followers
Facebook : 3.2 million likes

With the New Zealand All Blacks, people expect the absolute best when it comes to rugby—including on social media. The New Zealand All Blacks are the #1 ranked team in the world and have built a reputation as the most dominant rugby nation in history. They are the gold standard in rugby and their social media performance isn’t far behind.

While not entirely focused on the 2015 Rugby World Cup, the social media elements of the All Blacks ‘We Belong’ campaign are a perfect mix of Kiwi culture and digital design. Their social media strategy is meant to reach broad audiences and they have been successfully increasing their international fan following with the hashtag#TeamAllBlacks.

The ‘We Belong’ campaign uses culturally inclusive messaging and multiple social media touch points to draw people together around sport and cultural diversity, traits so characteristic of the tiny nation. In order to ‘belong’ to #TeamAllBlacks, users are simply asked to sign on using one of four simple methods. The All Blacks cut through the process as quickly as Julian Savea cuts through most backlines. In return for signing up, users are given exclusive offers, prizes and behind the scenes information on the All Blacks throughout the Rugby World Cup.

The New Zealand All Blacks brand transcends the bounds of the nation and its population. There are almost as many people interested in what the All Blacks are up to on Facebook (3.2 million) as those in the Rugby World Cup Facebook page (3.6 million). The All Blacks are as big a brand as the World Rugby itself and a social media darling during the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

Social Media Marketing Lessons from the All Blacks

1.     Draw on your brand’s values or cultural past to inject meaning and a personality into your campaign. This will help you reach a larger audience.

2.     Create contests with giveaways tailored to appeal to your audience.

On social media ‘Every Voice Counts’ for Team England, even in defeat

@EnglandRugby : 508K Twitter followers
Facebook : 1.5 million likes

Image courtesy of England Rugby

Image Source

Led by team captain Chris Robshaw, the Red and Whites from England went into the Rugby World Cup ranked third in the world but were soundly thrashed on home soil by both Wales and Australia in the tournament round robin. Though they lost on the field, when it comes to social media, Team England were absolute pros at engaging with fans. The team used the perfect combination of sentiment and social media strategy to create their winning campaign—‘Every Voice Counts.’ The campaign tied the country’s love of Rugby to their enthusiasm for sing-alongs.

At the center of the team’s World Cup campaign is the classic rugby song ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot’ famous for its connection to Team England’s past successes. As part of the campaign, people are encouraged to record their own versions of ‘Swing Low’ and share them with the world via the team’s social media platforms. The multi-channel social media campaign, centred on the hashtag #CarryThemHome, uses video-based, user-generated content to build sentiment and anticipation for the Rugby World Cup.

While the formula for beating the mighty Australians (#StrongerAsOne) might have eluded him on the rugby pitch, social media savvy team England coach Stuart Lancaster understands the importance of social etiquette. In a strong display of social media management in rugby, he handed out a package of social media guidelines to all players before the tournament. The sport has its fair share of scandals so it’ll be interesting to see how well those guidelines do at stemming the off pitch antics of the team, especially after the crushing loss to Team Australia. Regardless of the result on the pitch, England can hold its head up high for its social media strategy at the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

Social Media Marketing Lessons from Team England

1.     Leverage the power of consumer generated content to make your social media campaign viral.

2.     When multiple team members post using the same social channels, define ground rules of social media usage to protect your brand.

World Rugby builds a powerful ‘Social Hub’

Image courtesy of The Rugby World Cup

The frequently trending #RWC2015 is the main hashtag being used by World Rugby, organizers of the Rugby World Cup 2015.

Especially interesting is the site’s ‘Social Hub’, which aggregates snippets from across all World Rugby social media platforms. In its first week, the World Cup generated so much buzz that it became one of the most spoken about sports events on the planet. It came close to surpassing the total volume of mentions generated across the whole duration of the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

During the opening match #RWC2015 trended all day, reaching 15 million mentions on Facebook, 300,000 on Instagram and driving 181 million page impressions on the website with content delivered in four languages. The official app, available via the iTunes store, has been downloaded by 1.5 million fans.

Social Media Marketing Lessons from World Rugby

1.     Pick a hashtag that is easy to remember and captures the theme of your campaign

2.     Not all of your content has to be original. Be smart about reusing content

Put these social media marketing lessons to use and create a social media marketing plan for your business.

http://blog.hootsuite.com/6-social-media-marketing-lessons-from-the-rugby-world-cup-2015/utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=owned_social&utm_campaign=social_hootsuite&hootPostID=80a8a5513317705bed0076160d8c363c

Ret. 10-26-15

Tulsa Mayor's Mentoring to the Max Breakfast 2015, III

We have focused several blog posts on this event to illustrate the importance of mentoring as tied to workforce development. Every Oklahoma community, especially businesses, can focus upon mentoring as a means to a better economy and quality of life for everyone. We took the liberty of bold facing some points. 

Strong STEM, growing branches: Chamber devotes focus to mentoring in hard skills

By: D. Ray Tuttle The Journal Record January 27, 2015 

Pat McCelvey, right, of Newfield Exploration looks on as Anita Schroeder, principal of Park Elementary School in Tulsa, signs documents forming a partnership with the company. (Photo by Rip Stell)

TULSA – The Tulsa Regional Chamber and City of Tulsa promoted business mentoring at the Tulsa Community College Center for Creativity on Tuesday.

This year the chamber focused on mentoring in fields of science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, said Brian Paschal, the group’s senior vice president of education and workforce. Mentoring can be businesspeople meeting one-on-one with an elementary student for an hour of reading or actual internships in the workplace.

“We have identified that in the next five years, the highest-growth industries are all in STEM fields,” Paschal said.

Tulsa’s strongest employers are in manufacturing, aviation and aerospace, energy and health care, Paschal said.

“Going forward, those industries are projected to have the strongest growth and they all rely on STEM,” Paschal said. “We need to educate students on career options within STEM.”

Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett emphasized how businesses helping primary and secondary students in the STEM disciplines improves Tulsa’s workforce. He also gave an update on Tulsa Technology Center’s Aerospace Academy at R.L. Jones Jr./Riverside Airport. The academy will offer a day of aviation-related courses for high school juniors and seniors.

“Our goal is to teach our high school students about the opportunities that are there,” Bartlett said.  

Many students are unaware of careers available locally, Paschal said.

“We want to get employers involved, obviously, and we need to educate students on where the jobs are, what skills are needed and explain to them the pathway to those jobs,” Paschal said.

At the same time, Bartlett said an objective of mentoring is to show potential employers there is an effort to develop an educated workforce in Tulsa, Bartlett said.

“Employers will see that Tulsa has a group of people being trained and view them as future employees,” Bartlett said. “They will not worry about being able to find employees.”

Tulsa’s Union High School has 11 students in its mentoring program, said Gart Morris, senior principal.

“This event today is significant because it gets information out,” Morris said. “We want to make a difference in the lives of those 11 kids. This program provides opportunities they would not ordinarily have.”

Bama Pies is one company that works with Union, Morris said.  The company offers classes in the fall and then provides internships in the spring.

Tulsa Union senior Bernard Dindy plans on attending a welding school once he graduates.

“Mentoring is important because I want to understand what to look for once I graduate,” Dindy said. “I want to take advantage of the program so I can get a glimpse of the real world.”

Tuesday’s event gives Morris hope that the Union program can grow.

“I see it happening exponentially,” Morris said. “People see a little success and that breeds a lot of success.”

The program benefits  not only students, but also the businesses that offer assistance, said Jim Spradlin, founding director of Train at Work. The Tulsa-based company offers training strategies for the workplace.

“From a business standpoint, I see opportunities for businesses to capture the skills in these students,” Spradlin said. “In some ways, students are ahead when it comes to the use of technology for business purposes. But, what students do not understand are business objectives and how to focus.”

Mentoring helps them focus, Spradlin said.

At the end of the program, Newfield Exploration awarded $25,000 to the Reading Partners program at Park Elementary in Tulsa.

http://journalrecord.com/2015/01/27/strong-stem-growing-branches-chamber-devotes-focus-to-mentoring-in-hard-skills-general-news/

Ret. 2-3-15