This week, students across Alexandria – and across our country – are “back to school,” a phrase which undoubtedly conjures up a wide range of emotions, images, and memories. Think: first day jitters, school lunches, and homework. For me, though, “back to school” invokes the image a unique type of person: a mentor.
I started playing basketball at a young age, and I knew early on it was my sport. In seventh grade, I met a woman named Jan and she quickly became the best coach I ever had. She taught me that basketball went beyond the court and that it could shape all aspects of my life. In addition to being a basketball coach, Jan was a college professor — so academic achievement was always a priority for her student athletes. Basketball became the outlet, the motivation, and character-builder that I needed while figuring out who I was in middle school. Jan was able to create this experience for me because she knew how to approach each player as an individual and helped instill tenacity in us on the court and in the classroom. Basketball and Jan played a large role in forging who I am today as a leader and how I approach difficult situations. To this day, many years later, Jan is still a friend and mentor in my life — and someone about whom I often think as I work with middle schoolers myself.
Education, of course, is about a lot more than curricula and classes. It’s about a broader process of youth development, a journey through which young people form their identity and build skills for the classroom and beyond. One of the key ingredients in that development is having mentors, both formal and informal, who can help a child navigate what can often be difficult years of youth and adolescence.
Coaches, teachers, and the many adults who mentor young people are indispensable to every community, especially Alexandria. The positive effect has been demonstrated not just in anecdotes like my own, but also in sound social science research. Mentoring leads to a wide range of positive outcomes: improvements in grades and attendance, decreases in bullying and fighting, and increased interest in attending college. When students have mentors, they are exposed to a broader range of backgrounds, careers, and life paths. Their sense of self and possibility expand.
Simply put: mentoring changes lives. Yet right now, data shows that one in three young people will grow up without a mentor.
Fortunately, you don’t need to be a trained teacher or a coach to become a mentor. In our city, there are a number of ways for local residents to positively impact the life of a young person right here in Alexandria. I encourage you to take a look at The Alexandria Mentoring Partnership (https://www.alexandriava.gov/Mentoring) for a variety of mentoring opportunities. And, if like me, you want to help students thrive through those tricky middle school years, where too many students fall off track for high school graduation and college, please take a look at my organization, Higher Achievement (www.higherachievement.org/volunteer). It’s not too late to sign up to be a mentor for this school year.
Who knows, you may be the image that a young person in our city, years from now, imagines when she hears it’s time for “back to school.”