Building a Learning Communitythrough the Power of MentoringRelationships BY BECKY COOPER

The ties that young people establish with their Friendsfor Youth mentors have a significant positive impacton learning and academic achievement as well ason their personal and social well-being. The storyof Allison and her mentor Justine illustrates thisconnection.

At the age of thirteen, Allison was already involvedwith a gang, having difficulties at home and gettingin trouble at school. Fortunately, her school coun-selor, who had referred many students to Friends forYouth over the years, connected Allison with the or-ganization. Friends for Youth in turn matched herwith a mentor named Justine, whom Allison wouldlater describe as “like an angel sent from heaven be-cause she came into my life when I was all alone andhad no way out.”

As time passed and Allison grew up with Justine’ssupport and guidance, her life began to change.Justine became both friend and family for Allison,someone she knew she could trust and count on,someone who opened up a world that Allison hadn’tknown before. As Allison explains it, “I started go-ing places I had never gone before. I met new peo-ple, and I got into sports. My bad grades turned intoAs and Bs. I graduated from high school with hon-ors and received an award for community service. Inever thought I could have done this.”

As Allison looks back on her youth, she says thatwithout her mentor, she “could have gone to jail,dropped out of school, and been involved in gangs.”Instead, she has a lot of opportunity and hope thatillustrates the important effects of a mentoring rela-tionship. “Now I go to college,” Allison says withpride, and just as important, “I am setting an exam-ple for my younger brothers and sisters.”

This story was first publ ished in Patr ic ia Moore Harbour ’s book, CommunityEducators: A Resource for Educating and Developing Our Youth (Dayton, OH: Ketter ingFoundat ion Press, 2012) .Repr inted with permission.Editor ’s Note : The names of the mentors and mentees have been changed.

Justine’s life was also greatly enriched by her friend-ship with Allison. “When I signed up,” she explains,“I thought I would be the one pouring into Alli-son’s life, but I’m positive that I’ve gotten as much, ifnot more, from the relationship. Our friendship hasbrought a unique perspective in my life that I wouldnever have imagined.”

Like Justine, many Friends for Youth mentors comefrom a relatively privileged background but have aninstinct for helping others. Justine, for example, saysshe signed up to be a mentor after graduating fromcollege in order to share all of the blessings she hadreceived in life. Other mentors are inspired to helpbecause they themselves had seen in their own younglives the power of a positive relationship with a car-ing adult. The story of Julio and Dan exemplifies thekind of transformative power that can inspire youngpeople to excel as they learn and develop into thriv-ing, contributing adults.

Julio was matched with his mentor, Dan, a bankmanager, nearly thirty years ago. Reflecting back,Julio says that what he remembers about his youthis “being utterly directionless.”’ He earned noth-ing better than a C in school because he “justdidn’t care.” Then his relationship with Dan helpedturn him around, both personally and academically.Years later, when he graduated third in his class fromthe USC School of Medicine, Julio gave Dan andFriends for Youth a lot of credit, explaining: “Dangave me his time and his friendship, but most of allhe inspired me and gave me the first glimpses of whatI could do with my life. He helped me develop myown dreams.”

Dan himself had learned the value of giving backyears earlier when he first arrived in the UnitedStates as a teenager from EI Salvador. “I neededsomeone to show me the ropes,” he explains. “SoI adopted parent-like figures whom I cast as rolemodels.” He saw in Julio the same need for a father

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figure to help him adjust to his new culture, and Danwas happy to play that role for him. “I’m not say-ing Julio wouldn’t be where he was today withoutme, but he’s better off because of what I did.” Sig-nificantly, Dan says that their relationship continuesto this day. “Julio will always be in my close cadreof friends.”

Stories like those of Allison and Julio are not sur-prising, given the well-documented role of relation-ships in successful youth development and educa-tion. Through decades of research and experience,in fact, developmental psychologists, learning theo-rists, and other educators have concluded that rela-tionships, connections, engagement, and participa-tion are key elements in successful learning. Theyagree that children learn as they experience everydaylife with the help of formal and informal teachersand guides in the community. Addressing specificallythe mentor–mentee relationship in their research,professor of psychology Jean Rhodes and profes-sor of community health sciences David Dubois as-sert that successful, effective programs rely on theestablishment of close, enduring connections thatpromote positive youth development. When askedabout the key ingredient for successful youth de-velopment, psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner re-sponded, “Someone’s got to be crazy about the kid.”

Organizations like Friends for Youth strive to applythis amalgamation of knowledge from research andpractice to establish and strengthen natural com-munities of caring and learning for youth. Since itsinception in 1979, the organization has matchednearly 1,900 youth with caring, one-to-one men-tors, and its Mentoring Institute, founded in 1998,has allowed the organization to reach many more.Through training programs, educational productdevelopment, and an annual mentoring conference,Friends for Youth has directly and indirectly servedmore than 2,500 agencies representing nearly 2 mil-lion children and youth. In those vast numbers liesone simple fact: At the very heart of a caring, learn-ing community is one adult reaching out to mentorone child. Each of us, like Justine and Dan, possessestalents, knowledge, and resources that can make aprofound impact on a child’s life journey.

Reference

Rhodes, Jean E., and David L. DuBois. 2008. “MentoringRelationships and Programs for Youth.” Current Directionsin Psychological Science 17 (4): 254–58.

Becky Cooper serves as executive director of Friends forYouth, Inc., headquartered in Redwood City, California.

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