Entries by Justin Preston

Passing its second birthday, officials believe “My Brother’s Keeper” program will endure

By Emma Brown, The Washington Post Noah McQueen attended 10 different middle schools, then transferred among high schools three different times during his freshman year. He was struggling. But then he was paired with a mentor who helped him find his path. Now 19 and a student at Morehouse College, McQueen has become one of the faces […]

It Takes a Community: Nine Principles for Effective Youth Services Organizations

From Peter Samuelson In 2014, the Thrive Foundation searched across the nation for organizations providing services to disadvantaged youth nationwide with a caring adult at the center of their program delivery model and found eight exemplary organizations. Led by Thrive’s Director of Research and Evaluation, Peter Samuelson, Ph.D., the foundation then embarked on an evaluation to […]

Guiding a first generation to college: Where do mentors fit in?

By Tina Rosenberg, New York Times   In the first of two articles addressing the transition of first-generation college students from high school graduation to higher education, New York Times writer Tina Rosenberg highlights some of the issues facing low-income and low-resource students in New York City.   “[Students’] assumptions that [their] only options were […]

The power of many: Why schools are embracing broader formal and informal mentoring networks

Written by Alyza Sebenius, The Atlantic In her job as a “dream director,” Jessica Valoris is tasked with unleashing the potential of disadvantaged students at an inner-city high school in Washington, D.C. Her employer, a New York-based nonprofit called The Future Project, embeds mentors like Valoris in public schools, characterizing her role as a “midwife […]

Solving America’s Crisis of Academic Motivation

Written by: Kent Pekel President and CEO, Search Institute A decade ago the National Research Council released a report that showed that between 40 and 60 percent of U.S. high school students are disengaged from learning and don’t put much effort into school. Since that time, other studies have found that student motivation is a […]

9th Annual UNM Mentoring Conference – October 24 – 28, 2016

The Mentoring Institute at UNM is pleased to announce its 9th Annual Mentoring Conference. This five-day event will be held on Monday October, 24 2016 through Friday October, 28 2016  in the Student Union Building  on UNM’s Main campus in Albuquerque, New Mexico.       IMPORTANT DATES Call for Proposals Release : March 15, 2016 Abstract Proposal Submission Deadline : May […]

Can you schedule fun? Implications for Mentors

Written by Erika Ebsworth-Goold-WUSTL Life moves fast, and finding enough hours in the day to get everything done is, at times, a seemingly impossible task. Scheduling—whether keeping a calendar, a to-do list, or setting a smartphone reminder—is a saving grace for many people trying to accomplish as much as they can, as efficiently as they […]

Promising findings from youth-led, trauma-informed intervention

Harden, T., Kenemore, T., Mann, K., Edwards, M., List, C. & Martinson, K.J. (2015). The Truth N’ Trauma Project: Addressing community violence through a youth-led, trauma-informed and restorative framework. Journal of Child and Adolescent Social Work, 32, 65-79. DOI: 10.1007/s10560-014-0366-0 Summarized by Justin Preston   Introduction Chicago has experienced one of the country’s highest violent […]