Clarke County Mentor Journal

Reflection Journal #2: Clarke County Mentor Program
The Clarke County Mentor Program is a mentor program that was established in March of 1991 as a joint initiative of the Athens Clarke County School District and the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce in order to provide mentors to local students between grades K-12. The program allows mentors to visit mentees during the school hours for about one hour, once a week, for at least an entire year. The mentors are not encouraged to provide academic support but be a genuine adult for the youth to have a stable, caring adult in the life of the child other than their parent or guardian. Mentor-mentee relationships can also be allowed to develop as a community mentorship with the program, and some pairs …show more content…
Additionally, the long lasting success of the program and the school district’s acceptance of the program stands as a testament of the success and strong approval of the program within its schools. I appreciate the program’s ideology of coming together as a community interested in the success of students. The system enables community mentors who are privileged to extend their powers to mentees. I personally appreciate how the program emphasizes to the mentors in training that the program does not expect these adults to radically change the lives of the mentees but to simply ensure they have the same capacity to succeed in life by providing them support. With this comment, Ms. Shilton attempts to eliminate potential savior complexes present in the minds of misguided mentors, and enlightens them to understand the great potential of mentorship on its own, a major step towards active citizenship. I am thrilled to work with such a great organization to continue my efforts in serving the Athens community in issues related to Youth and Education