Local Mentoring
Programs Benefit Students
Efforts Highlighted During National Volunteer Week
OKLAHOMA CITY (April 10, 2014)
– This week marks National Volunteer Week, which honors the countless
people across the nation who offer their time, skill and compassion to help
others in need.
When it comes to volunteering to help
children, one of the most effective ways to make a big impression is to mentor.
“A mentorship program can have a strong and
immediate impact for a school. Especially for a struggling student, a mentor
can truly be a positive role model and friend. It’s such a rewarding way to
give back,” said state Superintendent of Public Instruction Janet Barresi.
Mentoring programs come in many varieties.
One school that benefits from mentors is Stanley Hupfeld Academy at Western
Village in Oklahoma City.
For an hour each week, Stanley Hupfeld visits
the elementary school that bears his name to hang out with a boy he mentors.
Next year, Hupfeld wants to start teaching him chess, but, for now, they play
checkers and talk about geography.
“I’ve often said it’s the best hour I spend
all week,” said Hupfeld, former president and CEO of INTEGRIS Health.
Mentors started coming to the school more
than a decade ago, back when it was still called Western Village Elementary.
Today, it has more than 300 mentors. They are community members with all kinds
of backgrounds. Some are older students, and about a third work for
INTEGRIS.
“Our goal is to have a mentor for every
student in Stanley Hupfeld Academy,” said Academy director Tobi Campbell.
Oklahoma has more than 100 mentoring and
leadership programs, according to the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence. The
OFE helps establish mentoring programs in schools statewide through its David
and Molly Boren Mentoring Initiative.
Mentors provide a stable source of support
for students who might not get that at home. They can tutor kids who need academic
help, or they can lend a sympathetic ear. By simply visiting with a child for
an hour a week, mentors leave a lasting and positive impression.
Bernard Jones, who works with prosthetics at
the Oklahoma City VA Medical Center, is in his eighth year as a mentor at
Stanley Hupfeld Academy. He admits he was skeptical when he first heard about
the program, afraid it would amount to babysitting.
It didn’t take long to change his mind.
“It’s something I look forward to every week.
The kids look forward to seeing me every week,” Jones said.
The program at Stanley Hupfeld Academy is one
branch of the Positive Directions mentoring program, which INTEGRIS operates in
communities with its hospitals. Each mentor is matched to a single student whom
he or she hopefully will stick with until that student graduates to the next
school.
What to do with the weekly hour is up to
mentors and mentees. Jones said the first 30 minutes of his sessions typically
are devoted to study time, but he leaves at least 15 minutes to play games or
talk.
“As they get to know you, they get a little
looser and start to share their life stories with you,” he said.
Mentoring programs in Oklahoma have been
started at all levels of schools by a range of organizations, including
colleges, churches, nonprofits and businesses.
In Tulsa's Kendall-Whittier Elementary
School, roughly 70 students stay until 6 p.m. every weekday to spend time with their
mentors. The youth mentoring program was launched off-site by a neighborhood
nonprofit in 2003. Several years ago, it became part of the University of
Tulsa's True Blue Neighbors initiative and was moved into the school building
with help from the George Kaiser Family Foundation.
"We've really seen tremendous growth in
our ability to serve students and parents in this neighborhood," said
director Danielle Hovenga.
Although the program is free, participants
must apply to join. Every kid gets a healthy after-school snack, takes a break
for playtime and spends an hour working on academics with a mentor. Half of
that hour is spent on literacy, Hovenga said.
Mentors come from across the community and
many are associated with the university, she said. Some faculty and staff
volunteer, and students can use it as a work-study job or for academic credit
in some classes.
Being able to operate the mentoring program
from inside the building has led to better coordination with teachers, and the
school staff gets to see the mentoring program in action, Hovenga said.
Beverly Woodrome, director of the mentoring
initiative at OFE, said there are too many kinds of successful mentoring
initiatives around the state to suggest one model is better than others. In one
town, a mentoring program was begun by a local banker who simply recognized a
need. In bigger cities, large corporations sometimes hire staff solely to run
their mentoring programs.
There is one basic ingredient both Woodrome
and Hupfeld cited; both the school and the mentoring organization need to be
dedicated to the program and provide designated leaders on both ends.
Mentors range from top-level executives to
school custodians. The more careers and backgrounds represented, the better,
Woodrome said.
“I think sometimes we overlook people who
could be inspirational,” she said.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Phil Bacharach
Director of Communications
Oklahoma State Department of Education
Tricia Pemberton
Assistant Director of Communications
Oklahoma State Department of Education
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