Mission: fight against the “drop out crises”, celebrate mentoring, and develop social responsibility in students.
Strategy: engage college students (mentoring groups and concerned adults) with children (and their parents) in a discussion about the importance of education and how to inspire them to finish school, attend college and develop skills for success. After walk fun activities build on this “near peer” mentoring experience while focusing on making healthy lifestyle choices.
The Mentor Walk provides a forum for a stimulating conversation, networking for educators, mentoring groups, social entrepreneurs, organizations that support corporate social responsibility and more, while positively influencing communities.
This walk honors Mrs. Carolyn Young who has taught in Atlanta Public Schools and has been recognized with several distinctions and awards for her outstanding service in teaching and mentoring.
Letters of Support
Recognition
Commendation – Lt. Governor Casey Cagle
Proclamation – Atlanta City Council
Purpose
The purpose of the walk is to:
- Provide an opportunity for college students to inspire and motivate younger children to finish school, attend college and in the process reinforce their own commitment to education
- Celebrate and recognize existing mentor relationships, organizations and groups that have mentoring programs
- Raise awareness of the importance of mentoring and inspire others to serve their community by becoming mentors
- Allow the opportunity for mentors from different groups to meet one another and share their experiences, stories, and tips
- Provide an opportunity for networking for educators, social entrepreneurs, organizations that support corporate social responsibility
- Connect education and healthy life style choices and make exercise a part of everyday experience
Mentoring Facts
Definitions of Mentoring
The term mentor stems from Greek mythology in which Odysseus entrusted the care and education of his child to a friend named Mentor while the father was away on his adventures and travels. Mentoring has come to be used for a variety of relationships. Some of its synonyms include role model, coach, guide, sponsor, friend, and adviser.
Below is a sampling of definitions from mentoring literature.
- Mentoring is a lifelong relationship in which a mentor helps a protégé reach her or his God-given potential.
- Mentoring provides, first, an instrumental or career function (e.g., sponsorship, coaching, corporate culture instruction), and second, an intrinsic or psychosocial function (e.g., serving as a model, a confidant, a friend).
- Mentoring is a power-free partnership between two individuals who desire mutual growth. One of the individuals usually has greater skills, experiences, and wisdom.
- Mentoring plays an important role in education,health, social, emotional well being and self sufficiency.
Read more: Mentoring in Higher Education
Direction, Vol. 30 No. 1, Spring 2001
Retain science, technology, engineering and math students in school and the White House Science Fair.
Report from the President’s Council of Advisor’s on Science and Technology
Default Rates Worsen Among Dropouts
Degreeless in Debt: What Happens to Borrowers Who Drop Out
Chronicle of Higher Education: the dropout crises and student retention
School-based mentoring is one of the fastest growing forms of mentoring in the US today.
~ Making a Difference in Schools: The Big Brothers Big Sisters School-Based Mentoring Impact Study
For information on college completion rates across the U.S., please read this article from the Lumina Foundation called A Stronger Nation Through Higher Education.
One in three teens fails to graduate with one teen dropping out every 26 seconds.
~ Find out more information on this epidemic here.
Two studies from the Annie E. Casey Foundation website:
National Human Services Assembly: Mentoring as a Family Strengthening Strategy
Girls Incorporated of Metropolitan Dallas: A Mentoring and Journaling Program for Girls Ages 6-18
ECS Education Policy Issue Site: Mentoring/Tutoring
Mentoring Programs and Youth Development
The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts
Good education predicts good health. Interventions that have potential to improve school achievement and reduce school dropout rate:
Reframing School Dropout as Public Health Issue
Preventing Chronic Disease, Vol.4 No. 4, October 2007
Win-Win Peer Mentoring and Tutoring Program: A Collaborative Model
The Journal of Primary Prevention, Vol. 20 No. 3, December 2000
Who Drops Out – and Why?
Journal Issue: America’s High Schools, Vol. 19 No. 1, Spring 2009