Posts

Other people’s children: The new reality show

by Jean E. Rhodes Imagine a reality television show in which privileged empty nesters competed to help less fortunate high school students gain entry into the nation’s highest ranked colleges and universities. The many parents who had successfully shepherded their children through the admissions process from the comfort of their homes from Greenwich to Palo […]

Not buying what they’re selling: Making friends reduces influence of negative media

By Lesley Henton, Futurity People whose only knowledge of Muslims comes from the media are very likely to have negative emotions and stereotypical beliefs about them, new research shows. In the Journal of Communication, Srividya Ramasubramanian, associate dean of liberal arts and professor of communication at Texas A&M University, used multiple studies, surveying non-Muslims on […]

Three things mentors can do to help their mentees cope with stress

By Katie Hurley, the Washington Post A young girl sits in my office, describing the “swishy” feeling that she gets in her stomach when she’s at school. It tends to happen at drop-off, just after lunch and as she watches the clock tick toward the end of the day. It happens so often that she […]

Slow ideas and the power of mentoring

by Jean Rhodes In a recent New Yorker article, “Slow Ideas,” science writer Atul Gawande laments the resistance amongst medical professionals and others to adopt innovation. He describes how, despite evidence, physicians were slow to warm up to Joseph Lister’s simple methods of sterilization. And, in a recent visit to a hospital in northern India, Gawande described […]

A calm port in the storm: Mentors serve as reliable support for youth in the foster care system

Greeson, J.K., Thompson, A.E., Ali, S., & Wenger, R.S. (2015). It’s good to know that you got somebody that’s not going anywhere: Attitudes and beliefs of older youth in foster care about child welfare-based natural mentoring. Children and Youth Services Review, 48, 140-149. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2014.12.015 Summarized by Benjamin Alford   Introduction: Research shows that older youth […]

It’s a two-way street: Four ways mentoring benefits the mentor

Written by Alex Lyman, Huffington Post   Despite being a young professional with a variety of much-needed mentors of my own, I find that becoming a mentor myself has been equally important to my personal and professional growth. I often find myself connecting with high school and college students on a more relatable level, because […]

Navigating internet risks: Mentors can help show the way

Written by Matt Swayne The online world is full of risky situations for teens, but allowing them to gradually build their own coping strategies may be a better parental strategy than forbidding internet use, according to a team of researchers. The researchers, who monitored web-based diaries of a group of 68 teen internet users during […]

When Mentoring First-Generation College Students, It Is The Little Things That Make The Difference

How to Help First-Generation Students Succeed A combination of simple nudges and regular check-ins from mentors can go a long way. Written by Mikhail Zinshteyn, Education Writers Association A few weeks ago Reina Olivas got on the phone with a freshman college student. “She was having a hard time with the cultural experience, the college […]

The Seeds of Extreme Self-Criticism Can Have Deadly Results: Implications for Mentors

Written by Michael O. Schroeder, U.S. News From a very early age, we learn – in a manner of speaking – to nitpick ourselves. We take information from those we encounter and the world around us to fine-tune how we act and who we are, taking note of what doesn’t work in an ongoing internal dialogue that stretches […]

Part 2: A Novel Program Provides a Network of Support for At-Risk Youth

How a Tapestry of Care Helps Teens Succeed By David Bornstein In the second installment of a two-part series on Thread, the Baltimore-based social support program, author David Bornstein revisits the organization and examines the structural aspects of its programmatic success. From the author’s description of Thread’s programming, “The organization works with public high school […]