Mentors For Kids

Serving others by utilizing the lessons I have learned through my experiences and my talents is how I want to live my life. As a first generation college student, I want to integrate myself in programs or start my own mentorship program where I am able to mentor and give back to students who are first generation college students as well. I feel it’s important to reach out to first generation college students because the amount of pressure we receive with little to no guidance can be discouraging and lead us to feel alone in this process.

Throughout the past four years of high school, I have done my best to try and stay actively involved in the community. I have been presented with some amazing volunteer opportunities such as Huron Safety Town, STAR Leadership Camp, American Red Cross, and Huron High School Girl’s Basketball Biddy Program. I spent over 24 hours at Huron Safety Town where I was able to help young students, mainly those going into Kindergarten, learn how to stay safe while on the road. I was also able to spend over 24 hours at STAR Leadership Camp where I was a councilor to those going into the sixth grade. I made sure that each student understood the importance of being a leader in today's society and how important they are to Huron’s community. Through National Honor Society I have been able to maintain in constant contact, approximately 10 hours, with the American Red Cross by volunteering in monthly blood drives. I have also dedicated 16 hours of my time to those young girls interested in someday being a varsity basketball player through the Biddy Basketball Program.

Starting from Girl Scouts to CJSF, my early love for aiding others quickly developed. However, my most pivotal service experience is my involvement in Key Club. As I became further involved in this organization, the thought of advancing my role by becoming an officer became very persistent in my mind. Being extremely shy and withdrawn, the idea of being a leader was incredibly intimidating to even fathom. Despite my shyness and anxiety causing me to doubt myself, my love for serving others outweighed any uncertainty I had in myself. After a daunting speech and election process, I gladly accepted the challenge of a club secretary, which has given me the opportunity to not only serve my community, but the members of my club. My experience as a Key Club officer has enriched my perception of myself and widened my range to serve. It has taught me to take risks and step out of my comfort zone in order to pursue my passions. Key Club has served as a platform for me to become more engrossed in my community and lead me to consider careers in which I can help those in

After graduation, I committed myself to learning new things and more importantly to try things that intimidated and frightened me. While doing so, I searched for and found a way to make a change in the lives of those who needed help the most. I became a career advisor for one of Washington D.C’s largest workforce development projects. I was tasked with the responsibility of teaching DC’s welfare population the essential skills needed to progress in life, and succeed in the workforce. Having overcame being a learning disabled student, and traumatic brain injury I was

Going to college and being in a university setting was the first time my perspectives and ideas were broadened. I was able to see the world outside my small suburb, and learned harsh realities, which I was sheltered from my whole life. Social justice advocate, Bryan Stevenson, expounds the idea of getting proximate to issues that one cares about. For me, getting proximate was accomplished by being on a university campus, and learning from the ideas of others, as well as new, first-hand experiences. As I was supported and encouraged in my growth at Loyola, I want to provide the same assistance for other students. Through my years I have excelled at organization and coordination, skills that I hope to apply in order to help students in a university setting. More so, I want to help support students who enter college, those who wish to expand their knowledge, viewpoints, and minds. Higher education would offer me a unique opportunity where I would be able to support students in their growth as a person, while offering encouragement and assistance to students throughout their college

However, I knew I was here to make a difference, so I flourished in service. My “Service and Leadership” Residential Learning Community, have been volunteering with Scholars with Diverse Abilities, March of Dimes, and OASIS. These three organization taught me the definition of serving all mankind. Spending time with people from all different walks of life, has taught me: that you will meet people along the way who will have different beliefs than me, but you must respect them, because that is what makes us all unique. I learned that when I am committed to something I will go to any length to reach my goal. Service takes up much of my time, but, I still make time for study hall and tutoring. I ended up making the Dean’s list my first

In high school, I was faced with a plethora of service opportunities and I quickly became involved in many of them. I currently serve as a Freshmen IMPACT Mentor and a Point Tutor. As an IMPACT Mentor, I help freshmen adjust to high school. This transition can be tedious and stressful for underclassmen, but having someone to guide them can be relieving. As a Point Tutor, I utilize my strengths in Math and Chemistry to

I was able to really connect with everyone else in the society as well as build a relationship with the teachers and staff. Talking about my experiences with teaching and mentoring I was able to go teach elementary school students about communication and expressions at a big seminar that took place at a community college. After that I was also able to go to an elementary school in my town with the National Honors Society which we read to a class of students and did various activities with them. We would either help them draw and write about the pictures or we would do arts and crafts with them relating to a specific topic. Referencing the discussions from our first class something I am passionate about is being able to directly work with kids and like Professor Riem said you have to want to come into class everyday with a positive attitude or you'll always end up having a negative attitude. Personally I always like to have a positive outlook on things and I am passionate about putting my attitude towards the children I work with. Skills and traits that make someone a valuable team player is you have to be dedicated, focused, patient, and

Since I was a young child growing up, I have been exposed to Social Services in one form or another. Many of my family members have participated in the social services arena, and as a result, I too have the love, and compassion for the helping profession. Because of this, I have been mentoring adolescents in my spare time. Helping with life transitions that may be challenging such as, transitioning into adulthood, stressful school/home situations, or life, in general, is very rewarding. Furthermore, being able to assist with tutoring, teaching life skills, and forming healthy relationships have been worthwhile, not only that, but beneficial to all parties involved as well.

I’ve stayed home innumerable nights this year working hard from the bus stop to the time I go to bed because I strive to go the extra mile. I have twelve years of school ahead of me, and I am not afraid of the hurdles it will bring because I know how to work hard for the long haul. I will apply this strength in the university as well. With the same skill, I’ve pushed through the adversities in altruism, the primal reason as to why I deserve this scholarship. As an altruist, I have put hundreds of hours of community service into the City of Howell, impacting the lives of children and adults each day. As an award-winning Vice President of a volunteer board for teenagers, we plan and carry out events to get students off the streets and into our welcoming teen center in downtown Howell. At times, our teen center faced closure and disapproval from government officials, but I pulled my board’s representatives over each hurdle and into our new building. I plan on continuing my charitable efforts around the globe, and I would like to make that mark on the world with this

My freshmen year at Loyola, during spring break I went to East St Louis, Illinois for an Alternate Break Immersion trip. The key focus of this trip is the immersion aspect, this was not just a service trip, and it focused on building community and solidarity. While in East St Louis, I worked at Catholic Day Care, which is a predominantly black catholic day care that is centered on the low income housing of East St. Louis. I was tasked with aiding the preschool teachers and helping the kids learn how to use the computer and play educational computer games. In the afternoons, I went to the local community center and helped with the afterschool program. This included helping them with their homework or even just playing board games with them, building community. This school year I am a STARS, Students Together Reaching for Success, mentor. The STARS mentorship program is for students of color and first generational college students, specifically serving freshman. I have four mentees who I mentor throughout the school year, working on anything from academics to identity development. I am a resource that they can utilize off and on campus. STARS mentors also compile different committees and facilitate monthly gatherings for all 63 mentees. These usually center on different social justice initiatives, development of the person. I worked on the retreat committee where we facilitated a retreat for 50 STARS mentees and mentors, as well as working on a gathering that focused on professional development in future planning and

In earlier stages of my career, I discovered aspirations for student success when employed as the 4-H Agent Assistant for Jackson County. Through the interaction with students of a diverse culture seeking guidance and leadership, I learned early on that I had the ability to touch a student’s life in a positive way. By teaching life-long lessons and leadership characteristics at the secondary education level, I watched these individuals begin to mature into productive citizens. This was the beginning point of my educational venture.

When I was a freshman, I shared a homeroom with nineteen other freshmen students and six seniors. Those seniors were known as “Bomber Pilots”, whose purpose was to mentor freshman students and demonstrate how to succeed at St. Xavier High School. The significant impact that my bomber pilots had on me, and the way in which I looked up to them, started my aspirations to do the same for other students. In that same year, I was nominated to be an “Ambassador” whose primary duties are to show interested 8th graders around the school and explain all of the advantages of becoming a St. Xavier student . My Sophomore year I was a tour guide at the St. X open house for families who wished to be better informed about the school’s academic and extracurricular

Grade seven outreach takes place at Western Technical Commercial School during various months of the first semester. Students from a profusion of different schools around Toronto, come to Western to participate in various dissimilar activities in the SHSM programs offered at Western. This is a great experience for the students who come to Western to participate in these collaborative, logical thinking and fun activities, because they meet new people and learn new useful skills that might inspire them to be in a SHSM when they enter high school. The leadership teachers designed an activity called chain of communication, which allowed the students to put there teamwork and time management skills to the text. My job as a leader was to ensure that everything was set up and clean when the new classes came to the classroom. I was also responsible for solving problems that arose, keeping track of time and encouraging students to get the task done.

Absent parenting does not specifically mean physically not being there as a parent, It can be being there but not contributing to the growth of the child (emotionally and psychological) which will have an effect on the child’s life. Due to family structures and roles changing (Steyler & Strydom 2004) impression of an absent parent could form as parents no longer spend enough time with their children and normally this is where other family members step in raising the child which supports the saying It takes a community to raise a child, which simply means takes more than just the child’s parents to teach them the difference between right or wrong ,this can be seen as mentorship/mentoring as according to Ndabazandile(as cited by Steytler & Strydom 2013) a mentor is someone who is influential and has established a personal relationship with the child to help them reach their goals.