A little time can make a big difference. Be an encourager once a week. Our TBC mentoring team works with Travis Elementary & Gonzales Achievement Center to build relationships with young people who need positive influences in their lives. With the encouragement and reassurance that you create, by the example of your faith, the young people you work with will all reach out for a bright future.
CONTACT INFORMATION
If you would like to give of your time, 733-6201.
Thank you to those who served on our Mentoring Team at Travis Elementary this school year:
Marc Arbon
Mary Duane Dawson
Lea Glisson
Rachel Greene
Jan Lockett
Gay Simmons
Carolyn Thornton
Barbara Williams
Janet Zinsmeyer
ON BECOMING A MENTOR
by Lea Glisson
It was August 2002. I had just had my picture made for the church directory, and I wasn’t feeling all that good about how it looked. As I was leaving, I was invited to fill out a form indicating my interest areas in the church—where I presently worked or would like to work. I knew the church sponsored a mentoring program and I had given it some thought in the past, but had not committed. Was now the time? I believed it was. I said “yes” to mentoring. Soon after that I met Barbara Williams, our mentoring Team Leader.
Barbara is a former educator who brings to the team the energy, enthusiasm and creativity one finds only in those who truly love their work. At our first meeting, my main concern was if I would be able to do fourth grade math problems. I quickly learned that is not what mentoring is about. Mentoring is being a role model and a friend. We do have learning activities for the student provided by the classroom teachers. We can also use our own ideas for additional activities, and we build these around the student’s interests. For example, my student shared my love of reading and writing. One of our activities is to write a story together. We are going on a “trip” to Egypt (her choice) and each week we spend about 15 minutes writing our travelogue. We each write a paragraph—hers in red ink and mine in green. There are not time or financial boundaries to our trip, so we let our imaginations run wild. We also read stories, make puppets, draw and color, play games and talk.
All mentors receive a handbook which shows the objectives of the mentoring program as “reinforcing positive attitudes toward learning and problem solving; improving school attendance; motivating the students to achieve academically in school; and providing students with role models who exhibit the benefits of studying, working hard and persevering.”
These are lofty objectives and meeting them will make a difference in a child’s life. More important to me, meeting my fourth grade mentee has made a difference in my life. I have learned from her.
You can maka a difference. We need more mentors. Please join Loretta Cienfuegos, Ed Emmons, Rachel Green, Ann Hailey, Mary Jane McDaniel, Meribell Parsons, Gay Simmons, John Stanley, Patricia White, Barbara Williams, Janet Zinsmeyer and me as mentors at Travis Elementary School. Don’t wait until the next church picture taking session to volunteer. Call 733-6201. That call could change a life.