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" All kids need is a little help, a little hope,
and someone who believes in them."
-- Earvin "Magic" Johnson
April Greetings, FLOW friends and family.
This past month there has been so much going on, as you will soon see below. We celebrate all the fun, adventure, friendships and good energy we've witnessed - and we give special thanks
to all of you who are at the heart of it.
Happy Spring!
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MAY 8, 2013
Mark Your Calendars! DON'T FORGET!***
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photo by Lindsey Peterson, LMS Mentor
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MIDDLE SCHOOL FLOW
GOES TO BALTIMORE
On April 22, Mentors and Mentees from the four St. Mary's County middle school FLOW programs headed to Baltimore for a full-day field trip. The group heard a presentation by renowned pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson at the Johns Hopkins Medical Center, then headed to the University of Baltimore where they took a tour of campus with the college students as their guides and were introduced to the basics of the college admissions process with members of the UB admissions team.
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LMS students outside the University of Baltimore Law Center
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Students from Margaret Brent "hang out"
with Edgar Allen Poe
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A college student guide leads the students on a campus tour.
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LMS Mentees
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the EMS group
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FLOW Mentoring in Action
So many exciting things have been happening at all of our FLOW schools. Look below to see all the cool and interesting projects our students have been up to!
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The Dynard FLOW participants have been leaders and promoters of their school's Green School effort, organizing a strong campaign for the school's TerraCycle collection. TerraCycle ( www.terracycle.com) is an organization which collects waste and recycles or upcycles it into something cool and new. At Dynard, students are collecting old Elmer's glue bottles and sticks to send them to TerraCycle, and, in the process, the school earns 1 cent for each item. FLOW students made posters advertising the collection and also gave reminders over morning announcements.
The Mentors and Mentees also gave their time and energy to beautify the school playgrounds. They cleaned up all trash -- and then took a few moments to have fun and be silly on the playground equipment!
  
 
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Park Hall Elementary
FLOW Mentors and Mentees created
some beautifully-dyed eggs together.
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FLOW participants were recently host to a man from a small town in Kenya who works as a safari guide and was visiting the area to work on getting a well put into his village. The well would be a great mark of progress -- right now, his villagers must walk 5 miles and have to carry gallons of water back to the village to ensure that they have adequate drinking water. While talking with the students, he explained to them about the water cycle and then showed them pictures of African animals: gazelles, lions, elephants, and zebras.
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Talking about the well in Kenya.
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Mentees with "stress balls"!
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Green Holly Elementary
Mentors and Mentees at Green Holly have been hard at work on various gardening projects. Some time earlier, they planted the flowers from seed. The young plants will be transplanted into a wonderful flower bed at this year's Christmas in April house that the teachers and staff are working on. The group also planted the flower box at the front door of the school so everyday staff and guest are greeted with beautiful flowers.
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POLL:
What new mentoring research do you think would be most beneficial?
"The research base around youth mentoring has grown considerably over the last decade and it seems that every few months a new report or resource comes along that improves our understanding of how to deliver mentoring services and what they can achieve. We should be thankful that the mentoring field has more information and a deeper understanding of our work than ever before.
But for all these efforts, there are still many aspects of youth mentoring where our practice is outpacing the research. Different program models, new strategies for relationship building, increasingly specific populations of youth being served... It often feels like the research struggles to keep up with the innovations in our programs. This leaves gaps in our understanding of best practice and a lack of information to base our program decisions on.
So we offer a poll:
What new mentoring research would be most beneficial to you and the work of your program? What do you need to know more about to do your good work? What do you wish researchers would focus on?"
choose from 8 options,
or express your thoughts and ideas in a comments section;
you can also read through the thoughts and input of others
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Mentoring in the News
"When a young person, even a gifted one, grows up without proximate living examples of what she may aspire to become--whether lawyer, scientist, artist, or leader in any realm--her goal remains abstract. Such models as appear in books or on the news, however inspiring or revered, are ultimately too remote to be real, let alone influential. But a role model in the flesh provides more than inspiration; his or her very existence is confirmation of possibilities one may have every reason to doubt, saying, 'Yes, someone like me can do this."
-- Sonia Sotomayor, US Supreme Court Justic
MENTOR and CNCS Encourage 150,000 Americans to Become Mentors
This year, MENTOR, the National Mentoring Partnership, and the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), the federal agency that leads service and volunteerism and is behind AmeriCorps, joined with the Presidential Inaugural Committee to call individuals to make a year-round pledge to volunteer as mentors starting January 19, National Mentoring Day. More than 150,000 individuals pledged more than 3 million hours.
click here to read more
Giovanni and Tim's Story: How the Help of a Mentor Profoundly Changed the Direction of One Youth's LifeGio is a teenage participant in the Youth Mentoring Connection, a program in the Los Angeles area pairing at-risk youth with caring adult mentors. He writes a moving blog entry in which he tells his story and gives his mentor all the credit for his dramatic life turn-around. Now a very successful athlete and scholar, he was once an obese youngster whose future was very much at risk. Gio writes, "Only the guidance from a mentor could make a fifty pound weight lost goal turn into a result of losing one hundred and twenty pounds in just a two year period." click here to read more and see before and after pictures
How Does Mentoring "Work," and Under What Conditions Does it Work Best?
In this column, Gail Manza and Susan Patrick draw from their new book Mentor's Field Guide, which is framed as a series of 67 answers to the most common questions that arise in youth mentoring. In answer to the question above, they say: "Compelling research tells us that a meaningful relationship between a mentor and mentee is one marked by trust and mutual regard and understanding... Our experience tells us that productive mentoring relationships have another essential ingredient, namely, opportunities to have fun. Very few enduring mentoring relationships seem to last without it." click here to read more
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BECOME A MENTOR for 2013-2014
We need you.
They need you.
How can I apply?
We are recruiting now for the 2013-14 school year!
To apply to become a Mentor please complete and return a FLOW Mentoring Mentor Application and a SMCPS Volunteer Application. Please click on the links below to view printable versions of each application.
When you have completed both applications, please mail, fax, or email the applications to:
Sarah R. Tyson, FLOW Mentoring IRT FLOW Office Location: Dr. James A. Forrest Career and Technology Center 24005 Point Lookout Road Leonardtown, MD 20650 Phone: 301-475-0242 ext. 148 Fax: 301-475-0245 srtyson@smcps.org
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FLOW Mentoring
St. Mary's County Public Schools
Department of College and Career Readiness
24005 Point Lookout Road
Leonardtown, MD 20650
Phone: 301-475-0242 x.148
Fax: 301-475-0245
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