One Young Man's Story

While most of our young, male mentees are matched with male mentors, "Mike" lives with a single father, so he was matched with a female volunteer, "Deborah".  The two have been meeting for several years.

One of the main goals of mentoring is to make sure students know they matter.  Mentoring gives them another adult to trust and turn to when they need advice.  Sometimes, however, mentoring can have a more immediate, tangible outcome.

Mike and his mentor meet over the lunch hour.  Deborah noticed Mike had stopped eating lunch.  The two would sit in the cafeteria, but Mike never had a lunch, either from the school or from home.  It took a few weeks, but Mike finally shared that he owed too much money to the school, and they wouldn't give him anymore meals until he paid his bill. 

Deborah contacted her mentoring facilitator who was able to speak to the guidance counselor about Mike's situation.  His family did qualify for the free and reduced lunch program, but they had never turned in the required paperwork. 

With Deborah's urging and help, Mike's father filled out the paperwork, and Mike was accepted into the program.  Not only does he now get to eat lunch, he also can eat breakfast at school!  Additionally, Mike lives too close to the school to ride the bus, so he was frequently tardy as he walked to school.  Now that he qualifies for free and reduced lunches, he also can ride the school bus for free.  He's no longer consistently tardy, because he has a ride and an incentive to there on time to eat breakfast. 

Having another adult watching out for a student can make all the difference!