Student/ Partner Alliance Celebrates National Mentoring Month

[SUMMIT, NJ] – FEBRUARY 3, 2022 Student/Partner Alliance(S/PA), a Summit based non-profit, which supports low-income, urban high schools in the greater Newark and Jersey City areas concluded our month-long celebration of National Mentoring Month with a fun and engaging session facilitated by Taylor Buonocore-Guthrie, Co-Founder of NJ-based facilitation firm, Convers(ate) on Thursday, January 27th over zoom.

In 2002, MENTOR National and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health declared the month of January National Mentoring Month in an effort to create a collective mentoring movement to celebrate the power of relationships and raise awareness around the importance of mentoring our youth. The mentoring gap in our country is huge and we encourage anyone who is interested in learning more about how you can get involved as a mentor to reach out to us.

Margaret Momber, Executive Director of Student/Partner Alliance notes, “We were so pleased to be able to offer this fresh and engaging program to our S/PA Community. The event helped us feel like a true community even though we haven’t all been together in one room in so long.”

During the fast-paced hour, mentors and mentees had the chance to develop and deepen relationships a fun and unintimidating way. Convers(ate), known for an energetic style and great questions provided a great way to forge connections and real conversations which can be difficult virtually.

One mentor noted:

“The large group and small group sessions were both helpful in broadening my understanding of the nature of the composition of both the mentor and mentee group… now have several questions I can use in my next zoom call with my mentee to continue building our relationship, but to better understand his life, what excites him, perhaps concerns him and inspires him.’

During the call, mentors and mentees shared their feelings coming into the new year and everyone left with important takeaways from the evening to carry with them through 2022.

“Thank you all for such an incredible evening!! It was so well done. I really was so impressed with this event and how it connected everyone!” Noted Debbie Nagpal, S/PA Board Member

Another mentor kept it simple as she remarked: “Tonight was awesome!” What better way to close out National Mentoring Month!

For the past two years, S/PA has created and offered meaningful virtual events to keep the S/PA community connected while COVID cases were too high to allow for in person gatherings. As COVID is decreasing in our community, we are delighted to now be able to plan more in-person events to promote deeper connections between our mentors and mentees. We will also continue our very popular enrichment series with events such as resume writing and job readiness in the coming months.

Student/Partner Alliance was founded in 1993 to support motivated high school students at private high schools in New Jersey’s urban areas of Essex, Hudson and Union counties with tuition assistance and mentoring to increase their chances for college admission and chances of earning college scholarships.

If you are interested in learning more about being a mentor with Student/Partner Alliance, please visit our website at www.studentpartneralliance.org.

ABOUT:

Student/Partner Alliance

The mission of Student/Partner Alliance (S/PA) is to support motivated high school students at private high schools in New Jersey’s urban areas of Essex, Hudson and Union counties with tuition assistance and mentoring to increase their chances for college admission and scholarships, and ultimately to lead successful and productive lives.

Research from mentor.org shows that mentors play a powerful role in providing young people with the tools to strive and thrive, to attend and engage in school, and to reduce or avoid risky behavior like drug use. In turn, these young people are:

– 55% more likely to be enrolled in college

– 81% more likely to report participating regularly in sports or extracurricular activities

– 78% more likely to volunteer regularly in their communities.

– More than twice as likely to say they held a leadership position in a club or sports team.

Yet, the same research shows that one in three young people in our country will grow up without a mentor. Today, in our community there are so many young people who could benefit from having a mentor outside their family.

To learn more about the role mentoring plays in our community and to find volunteer opportunities with us visit www.studentpartneralliance.org. If you would like to learn more about our program, please contact me at akent@studentpartneralliance.org.