Mentoring to Manhood at full speed

I love to read storied like these.  Men who decided to give back to their community through mentoring.  Rob Marlone gets much respect from me.  His program at Largo High School is what I hope my program will be once I get things really rolling. 

I know that this young man Stephen White will keep up the good work and use what you have learned through Mentoring to Manhood to move forward!!!

Thursday’s Session

Due to the weather, Prince George’s County Public Schools  were closed so I was not able to meet with my boys today.  I am hoping to meet with them tomorrow or Monday, which is the last day of school.  I want to make sure that they understand that I am serious about investing my time into their development.

My second mentor session

I am meeting with my boys tomorrow at 11.  We are having pizza at the school for lunch.  I plan on giving them an assessment to see what they know, so that I can create a curriculum for next year that will fill in the gaps.  I will let you know how that goes.

First Meeting

I met with a group of students yesterday at DuVal High School.  I must admit that I was very nervous.  The Guidance Counselor Chair wanted me to meet and talk to some students who she felt needed a push in the right direction.

When the students walked in the classroom, they thought they were in trouble…lol I assured them that they weren’t in any trouble.

I decided to start by asking each one of them to introduce themselves.  After that I decided to talk about my experiences growing up in Prince George’s County and about the choices (good and bad) that I made.  I thought this was better than lecturing or “preaching” to them; and it worked.  The kids started asking me questions about college, how to study as well as many other things.  I think I was more excited than they were.

The guidance counselor wants me to come back next week so I can start to build a rapport with the students before next school year.  It looks as if my vision of starting my mentoring program is taking off. 

Duval High School

Today I am meeting with 15 students who may benefit from having a mentor.  The chair of the guidance department asked each counselor to select 3-4 student for me to talk to.  I am kind of nervous.  I don’t want to come off as boring or appear to be preaching to them. So I have decided that I would first introduce myself and tell them about some of my ups and downs in high school and college and hopefully they can learn from that. 

I will keep you posted.

My first mentor blog post

I was inspired to start this blog page after reading a blog written a brother who has made it his mission to give back to our youth.  He is a recent graduate from medical school in Baltimore and is apart of the the Big Brother program.  You can check out his blog at Reaching Young Minds.  This brother is doing his thing.

For the past year I have been pitching the idea of a group mentoring program to several high schools in Prince George’s County with little success.  I am hoping that things are changing since last week.

I found out that a teacher who I had in 10th grade at Suitland High School back in 1991 (man that was a long time ago…lol)  is now the chair of the guidance department at DuVal High School.  We have been discussing my mentoring program and she is very interested.  She arranged for me to speak to a group of students tomorrow and I am very excited; I will keep you posted on how that turned out.