Mentor Program

Today was a day of celebration for me. I got to see and hug my very first student I ever mentored in high school, Jenae Campbell. Both of us got to talk about the mentoring program to our Jefferson City Area Board of Realtors General Meeting. It is called REACT. The program consists of a Realtor volunteering to mentor a high school student. The mentor meets with the student 30 minutes or more each week on a one on one basis in the high school. It is the mentors job to ask questions, listen, and encourage. The purpose is to keep the student in school and see them graduate.

I met Jenae in January 2003. In 2004 Jenae graduated and is now working as a case worker in Springfield, MO. Her goal is to become certified as a case worker and then go on to become a child psychologist. I'm just poppin' my buttons. I am so proud of her.

I encourage you to make a difference. Jenae certainly is and so is the mentoring program.

School Mentoring Program

I have been asked to present the REACT program details at our next Jefferson City Area Board of Realtors meeting. Interestingly, I hadn't really thought about why I volunteer as a mentor to high school students. I just do it. But now I know!

I want to make a difference in this world. Even if it is a teeny tiny difference for the better! Upon graduation, my first student (mentee) made a diorama for me. It was a starfish with a popular short story enclosed, The Starfish Story by Loren Eiseley. I will paraphrase, if you do not remember it. A person was walking on the beach throwing starfish into the water. When another individual came upon him, he asked, "Why are you doing that when there are so many starfish washed up on shore?" His reply, as he bent down to throw another starfish into the ocean, "It made a difference for that one."

You remember someone in high school who made a difference for you. Now you can be that someone!