Zeeba Khalili
Mass Mentoring Partnership
Boston, MA
When I graduated from college in 2009 and decided to accept a VISTA position at Friends of the Children-Boston, my family and friends back home were confused about what exactly a Mentoring Program Coordinator was. I grew up in Olathe, Kansas, a bustling suburb of Kansas City (although most imagine it as a desolate farm town) and had never heard of mentoring until finding this job posting. It sounded wonderful. In my position, I coordinated a program with over 100 mentees, paid professionals and social work students as mentors, and results that actually demonstrated a positive effect of the program. I quickly had a crash course in formal mentoring, learning what the mentors and mentees would do on their outings, where each mentee attended school and who his/her teacher was, what impact the evaluations were demonstrating the program had on the mentees’ MCAS scores, and much more. But trying to explain that to people back in Kansas usually didn’t go very far and I’d just say that I was helping kids do well in school, dreading the question. As I learned, I became more passionate about what impact the relationships were having on these young kids and tried harder to explain it to the people I knew in the Midwest, referencing their own mentors and seeing what they themselves got out of those relationships.
After my first year of service had ended and I started applying for full-time positions elsewhere, I discovered the job posting for my current position, as the School Partnership Associate through the Ambassadors of Mentoring program. Although the idea of having food stamps for another year made me cringe, I was immediately drawn to this job, specifically for the opportunity available to work with different stakeholders in the mentoring world. And just as I hoped I would, throughout this year, I have had the opportunity to work with school coordinators, principals, programs partners, social workers, city staff, and superintendents, all of whom are passionate about utilizing mentoring as a tool to provide opportunities for youth in Boston and across Massachusetts.
This past weekend I went to the Midwest for a family wedding, the first time I have seen most of my extended family in five years. Of course they all wanted to know what I was doing and I spent hours explaining it. But now, after two years of working in the mentoring field, I know how to explain both my job and its impact. I talked about the underperforming schools in Boston and how mentoring programs came together to work with the students on both academic and social-emotional support, about the school leaders who have begun to seek out mentoring as a tool for academic success, and the corporate partners who are targeting older students and providing them with role models in so many fields. And finally I saw it click in their faces, understanding the substantial impact that mentoring could have on youth, and asking whether I thought there were mentoring programs in their hometowns. So now when I go home to my bustling suburb (ranked 28th fasted growing city in the US in 2008!) and people don’t have any idea what I’ve been doing for the last 2 years, there’s no dread, only excitement that I might be able to convince one more person about the impact of mentoring.
Mass Mentoring Partnership
Boston, MA
When I graduated from college in 2009 and decided to accept a VISTA position at Friends of the Children-Boston, my family and friends back home were confused about what exactly a Mentoring Program Coordinator was. I grew up in Olathe, Kansas, a bustling suburb of Kansas City (although most imagine it as a desolate farm town) and had never heard of mentoring until finding this job posting. It sounded wonderful. In my position, I coordinated a program with over 100 mentees, paid professionals and social work students as mentors, and results that actually demonstrated a positive effect of the program. I quickly had a crash course in formal mentoring, learning what the mentors and mentees would do on their outings, where each mentee attended school and who his/her teacher was, what impact the evaluations were demonstrating the program had on the mentees’ MCAS scores, and much more. But trying to explain that to people back in Kansas usually didn’t go very far and I’d just say that I was helping kids do well in school, dreading the question. As I learned, I became more passionate about what impact the relationships were having on these young kids and tried harder to explain it to the people I knew in the Midwest, referencing their own mentors and seeing what they themselves got out of those relationships.
This past weekend I went to the Midwest for a family wedding, the first time I have seen most of my extended family in five years. Of course they all wanted to know what I was doing and I spent hours explaining it. But now, after two years of working in the mentoring field, I know how to explain both my job and its impact. I talked about the underperforming schools in Boston and how mentoring programs came together to work with the students on both academic and social-emotional support, about the school leaders who have begun to seek out mentoring as a tool for academic success, and the corporate partners who are targeting older students and providing them with role models in so many fields. And finally I saw it click in their faces, understanding the substantial impact that mentoring could have on youth, and asking whether I thought there were mentoring programs in their hometowns. So now when I go home to my bustling suburb (ranked 28th fasted growing city in the US in 2008!) and people don’t have any idea what I’ve been doing for the last 2 years, there’s no dread, only excitement that I might be able to convince one more person about the impact of mentoring.
Great post, Zeeba. Thanks for sharing your experience... and for setting out to have that experience in the first place. I am sure that you have had an impact, personally, on many people, from kids to school administrators.
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