It’s that time of year when people look back at their blessings over the past year and make plans for the next. We at Winning Futures are no different, except that we are sharing our thoughts and wishes with you.
Looking back, we’ve had some great successes among our mentees. For example, consider former mentee T’Ajmal Hogue, who is now a freshman at Harvard University.
“My attitude has changed since Winning Futures. I am more grateful for things that I have in my life today,” she said. “After Winning Futures, I began to dedicate my life to service within the community.”
Along the way to her 300 hours of community service, she gained the confidence she said she lacked in social situations. She credits her mentor, who taught her that “kindness and determination are some of the best qualities to have.”
Then there’s Maliyah, who summed up the feelings of the 100 students who attended this year’s Greg Kelser “Shoot for your Goals” basketball camp in July.
“I enjoyed that the mentors in the classroom taught us how to be better in life and in school,” she said.
We can’t thank enough the 616 business professionals who volunteered over 26,424 hours to serve as mentors serving over 1900 students in 2017.
What does a mentor do? Well, a mentor has a lot of fun while helping young students become successful in life by teaching them how to make good decisions, set life goals, become self-reliant and think positively.
Take for example our teams at Madison High School. This fall they discussed character values like integrity, a strong work ethic, and how to find a career with a company that mirrors them. Mentors and mentees practiced using their character values by discussing various workplace scenarios that presented an ethical dilemma. One of the scenarios discusses a teen who is tempted to take tablets from his job because he knows they don’t have a strict inventory process and his little brother needs one for school. Mentoring teams decided how to best solve the problems presented in their scenarios and identified what character value motivated their decision. Check out this and other fun mentoring classes on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pg/winningfuturesmentor/posts/.
How successful have we been this past year? Here are some statistics:
Of the students we mentored in the 2016-17 school year:
- 91 percent said they understood more about what it would take to achieve their desired career.
- 91 percent said they gained job readiness skills.
- 89 percent said their attitude became more positive.
- 85 percent said their confidence increased.
- 85 percent said their study skills increased.
That was last year. We need your help and support to keep this train running full speed in 2018 and beyond, so please consider donating your time and/or funds to Winning Futures.
To learn more about our mentoring program, go to https://winningfutures.org/volunteer/mentor/.
To learn more about us or make a donation, go to www.winningfutures.org or call (586) 284-8449.