Earlier this week the formal part of the first GR8 MATES pilot program came to an end with a Celebration of Learning at the school. A few parents attended, though we did not expect many, as it was held during the middle of a working day. Students and mentors received Certificates for participating in the program and both mentor and mentee shared something about their mentoring journey during the past nine months.
The presentations took a variety of forms. One mentor interviewed his mentee. Three mentees delivered brief Power Point presentations and some simply shared their moments in brief speeches. The power of effective mentoring was the message that shone through each and every presentation. One mentee shared how he was in a really bad space this time last year before joining the program. As a result of the time shared with his mentor, he is now motivated, focused, self-confident and has a definite career path which will include a university degree. He shared how difficult it was to share all his antisocial behaviour issues that were getting him into trouble, but his mentor had pointed out to him that, 'Failure is not a person!' They had processed everything and moved on.
Another mentee shared how her mentor had helped her shape a career path, had assisted her find work experience and had been such a strong support to her, a theme that was echoed by a number of the mentees. Another mentor shared what a privilege it was for her to be allowed to enter her mentee'slife and publicly thanked him for the opportunity to share. A mentee pointed out how much he had enjoyed the time with his mentor, chatting aboutthings he would not have talked to his parents about ....... and so it went on.
Jayden was a young person very unsure of himself when he joined the program. Nine months later he delivered a superb Power Point show of his jouney with his mentor, Margaret. He has given permission for extracts to be used, so here they are straight from his slides:
• When we were getting to know each other, (when we first met) we decided to look at what we had in common, which wasn’t a lot but we did have at least one thing in common and that was that we were both eager to work through this together and complete the tasks we set before us successfully.
• During the journey I changed my mind many times, I changed my mind about what kind of work I want to do, I changed my mind about how I want to live, I changed my mind about going to TAFE [ a tertiary institute] and I hope that all these changes will be for the best.
• I now know, I want to become a vet instead of a scientist, I want to spend less time wasting my time and using the time to help get me through life as a vet.
• I also know now that I don’t want to go to TAFE and with that spare time I will do voluntary work.
• From this mentoring journey I learnt a lot of things, things such as, What I wanted to do for my future career and how I was going to achieve the goals I set for myself. The mentoring journey has also showed me how I could improve my life so I wasted a lot less time on things that didn’t matter and I decided to use that time to help myself achieve my long term goals and I don’t think I could have achieved this without the help of my mentor and this mentoring program.
Jayden’s mentor, Margaret, publicly responded to his presentation and concluded with these words:
• I have enjoyed sharing this journey with Jayden. I have seen him grow in confidence and self-belief. He has made positive changes in his daily life, has discovered a career path that interests him and has become more assertive. I have enjoyed his sense of humour. I wish him well for his future and know that if he continues to believe in himself he will accomplish more than he ever dreamed of.
Marion also allowed me to share a poem she wrote for her mentor which she read out to everyone, another powerful testimony about the power of a mentoring relationship. This poem can be found on the website: http://www.yess.co.nz/ in the 'Mentor' section under the heading, 'Tribute to a Mentor from a Mentee.' Free to download for anyone wishing to share with a group of mentors in training or simply needing some encouragement.
And so I could go on - a memorable day which ended with a large feast enjoyed by one and all.
Letters were sent out to all mentors, mentees and the mentees' parents informing them that the formal part of the program has ended. A number of mentors will continue to meet regularly with their mentees until the end of the year and most appear keen to stay in touch.
I still need to collate all the Exit Surveys and other material completed at the end of the journey and will post some conclusions at a later date.
That same night the training ended for the next group of mentors beginning a new program at the same school. They are keen, motivated and anxious at the same time. We have to conclude the post-training mentor interviews when I return from two weeks leave :-) and then it's all go!!
The presentations took a variety of forms. One mentor interviewed his mentee. Three mentees delivered brief Power Point presentations and some simply shared their moments in brief speeches. The power of effective mentoring was the message that shone through each and every presentation. One mentee shared how he was in a really bad space this time last year before joining the program. As a result of the time shared with his mentor, he is now motivated, focused, self-confident and has a definite career path which will include a university degree. He shared how difficult it was to share all his antisocial behaviour issues that were getting him into trouble, but his mentor had pointed out to him that, 'Failure is not a person!' They had processed everything and moved on.
Another mentee shared how her mentor had helped her shape a career path, had assisted her find work experience and had been such a strong support to her, a theme that was echoed by a number of the mentees. Another mentor shared what a privilege it was for her to be allowed to enter her mentee'slife and publicly thanked him for the opportunity to share. A mentee pointed out how much he had enjoyed the time with his mentor, chatting aboutthings he would not have talked to his parents about ....... and so it went on.
Jayden was a young person very unsure of himself when he joined the program. Nine months later he delivered a superb Power Point show of his jouney with his mentor, Margaret. He has given permission for extracts to be used, so here they are straight from his slides:
• When we were getting to know each other, (when we first met) we decided to look at what we had in common, which wasn’t a lot but we did have at least one thing in common and that was that we were both eager to work through this together and complete the tasks we set before us successfully.
• During the journey I changed my mind many times, I changed my mind about what kind of work I want to do, I changed my mind about how I want to live, I changed my mind about going to TAFE [ a tertiary institute] and I hope that all these changes will be for the best.
• I now know, I want to become a vet instead of a scientist, I want to spend less time wasting my time and using the time to help get me through life as a vet.
• I also know now that I don’t want to go to TAFE and with that spare time I will do voluntary work.
• From this mentoring journey I learnt a lot of things, things such as, What I wanted to do for my future career and how I was going to achieve the goals I set for myself. The mentoring journey has also showed me how I could improve my life so I wasted a lot less time on things that didn’t matter and I decided to use that time to help myself achieve my long term goals and I don’t think I could have achieved this without the help of my mentor and this mentoring program.
Jayden’s mentor, Margaret, publicly responded to his presentation and concluded with these words:
• I have enjoyed sharing this journey with Jayden. I have seen him grow in confidence and self-belief. He has made positive changes in his daily life, has discovered a career path that interests him and has become more assertive. I have enjoyed his sense of humour. I wish him well for his future and know that if he continues to believe in himself he will accomplish more than he ever dreamed of.
Marion also allowed me to share a poem she wrote for her mentor which she read out to everyone, another powerful testimony about the power of a mentoring relationship. This poem can be found on the website: http://www.yess.co.nz/ in the 'Mentor' section under the heading, 'Tribute to a Mentor from a Mentee.' Free to download for anyone wishing to share with a group of mentors in training or simply needing some encouragement.
And so I could go on - a memorable day which ended with a large feast enjoyed by one and all.
Letters were sent out to all mentors, mentees and the mentees' parents informing them that the formal part of the program has ended. A number of mentors will continue to meet regularly with their mentees until the end of the year and most appear keen to stay in touch.
I still need to collate all the Exit Surveys and other material completed at the end of the journey and will post some conclusions at a later date.
That same night the training ended for the next group of mentors beginning a new program at the same school. They are keen, motivated and anxious at the same time. We have to conclude the post-training mentor interviews when I return from two weeks leave :-) and then it's all go!!
No comments:
Post a Comment