Mentor Update from the Hillsborough Education Foundation

Hillsborough Education Foundation September 2011

Mentee Graduating

Mentor

UPDATE

Greetings!

September is here, and that means one thing: back to school! We hope you enjoyed your summer vacation and are feeling relaxed and ready to kick off another excellent school year. Our students have been settling into their new schedules and are ready to begin meeting with their mentors. We hope you're excited to help our young scholars achieve their dream of going to college!

Important Announcements

· If you are mentoring the same student this year, please call your school contact to schedule your first meeting. The school contact will inform you of your student's schedule and the best time to re-enter the school.

· On your first day back at school, please check in with your school contact before meeting with your student. He or she will have a packet of information for you, including the 2011-2012 Policy Adherence Agreement for you and your mentee to sign together. Please return the signed form to your school contact on your first day.

· If you are mentoring a new student this year (or the same student at a new school), program staff will contact you to facilitate your first meeting.

· This year, HEF is introducing a Monthly Mentor Communication Form, which will be emailed directly to you at the end of the month. This monthly communication form is required. It is a brief survey which will not only assist HEF in tracking the progress of your relationship with your mentee, it will also improve our ability to respond to issues or problems in the mentoring relationship. The Monthly Communication Form will also give you an opportunity to request to be contacted by program staff, provide feedback, or just brag about the fun activities you are doing with your mentee! We greatly appreciate your cooperation in submitting the Monthly Communication Form.

KnowHow2Go Corner:

Here's a refresher course on KnowHow2GO for our returning mentors, and an introduction for our newbies!

KH2GO is a college access campaign funded by the Lumina Foundation for Education and the American Council on Education. It focuses on evidence-based strategies for low-income and minority first-generation college-goers to pursue higher education.

KH2GO is all about the 4 Steps to College:

1) Be a Pain (in a good way)

Find an adult who can help you with the steps to college. Let everyone know you want to go to college. And don't stop until you find the adult who can help.

2) Push Yourself

Colleges require you to take certain classes in high school. Find out which classes and sign up!

3) Find the Right Fit

Think about interests and activities that you enjoy. Explore colleges with programs that suit your interests.

4) Put Your Hands on Some Cash

There's money out there to help you pay for college. Apply for it.

What does all this have to do with mentoring? Mentors can take advantage of KH2GO's 4 Steps when counseling their mentees on their path to college. Pursuing higher education is a complicated and difficult process, especially for a young student with few college-educated role models. By communicating KH2GO's simple 4-step strategy to your mentee, you can help provide him or her with a clear path to college, transforming higher education from a distant dream to an attainable and realistic goal. With HEF's Scholarships & Mentoring Program, we've already got #1 and #4 covered, so we're halfway there!

KH2GO's website and print materials are also chock-full of fantastic resources, tips and advice on college access issues. We encourage you to check out KnowHow2GOFlorida, or email jmaresco@educationfoundation.com if you would like to receive a KH2GO brochure.

In This Issue

Important Announcements

KnowHow2Go Corner

Tough Questions

September's Featured Resource

Mentors Needed

Have friends or colleagues who would make an amazing mentor? Send their information to Jonathan Maresco and he will contact them!

Contacts

Let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

Whether you have been a mentor for many years or just joined the program, we are excited to have you as part of our mentoring team.

The Foundation and your students are more than grateful for your dedication and the honor you bring to the title "MENTOR."

Tough Questions

I am having difficulty scheduling an appointment with my mentee. I am anxious to start meeting again after two months off. What should I do?

This one's easy!

Have you reached out to your school contact yet to schedule your first appointment? College and Career Counselors are extremely busy the first two weeks of school. If you have not heard back from him or her yet, try calling again now that students are settled into their classes.
If you still have not been able to re-enter the school, contact Jonathan at 813-574-0260 or jmaresco@educationfoundation.com. Program staff will be glad to facilitate your first meeting of the year.

Keep in mind, program staff cannot resolve an issue if we don't know about it! Call or email to let us know if you are having any difficulties at the start of this year and we will fix it!

September's Featured Resource

Take Stock in Children's website has a comprehensive Support Resources for Mentors page that we encourage everyone to frequently explore. Among the many helpful resources are Lunch & Learns (video webinars dedicated to important mentoring topics such as "Communication" and "Preparing for College"), the Mentor Toolkit, and information about the collEDGE Help Line. Check it out!

Sincerely,

The Mentoring Support Team

Hillsborough Education Foundation