Corpus Christi Caller-Times Sylvia R. Longoria

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Sylvia R. Longoria

Sylvia R. Longoria's column is published Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. She can be contacted at longorias@caller.com.

Tuesday, September 5, 2000

Mentoring teens takes lots of time

One reward is helping kids to finish school

As a school administrator, Robin Neill spends much of her workday surrounded by students. But long after the bell rings and the clock indicates she should be at home enjoying dinner or the company of family, Neill more often than not is still around classrooms helping teen-agers.
   For the past three years, while serving as assistant principal at South Park Middle School, Neill somehow carved enough time out of her hectic schedule to be a mentor with Communities in Schools, a nonprofit, stay-in-school network made up of 141 independent agencies in 34 states throughout the country. This year, as an assistant principal at Carroll High School, Neill plans to do the same.
   "It's all about commitment," Neill said. "If you don't enjoy being a mentor, you notice the enormous amount of time you spend doing it. But if you like it, you instead notice how funny and very bright the students really are and before you know it, the time you invest in them begins to really pay off."
   Communities in Schools, established in 1986, addresses six student needs:

Health and human services.

Pre-employment training.

Parental involvement.

Academic enhancement.

Enrichment.

And supportive guidance and counseling.
   The program helps at-risk students age 5 to 21 stay in school and succeed academically.
   Keeping students in school
   "There are a lot of 19-, 20-, and 21-year-olds in our school systems, not just locally, who for whatever reason don't graduate at 18," said Veronica Treviño, Communities in Schools executive director. "Our goal is to keep students from dropping out of school."
   The program recruits two distinct types of participants, volunteers and mentors. Each mentor is paired with a specific student or class, while volunteers are not.
   Communities in Schools' services include home visits, ensuring students have classroom space after school to do homework, or one-on-one tutoring for students who, for example, may be having difficulty passing a performance standard, Neill said.
   More mentors needed
   The program is currently available at eight Corpus Christi Independent School District campuses, at one Flour Bluff school and two in Kingsville. Last year, the program had 53 mentors.
   Among the program's mentors a few years ago was Neill's own daughter, who at the time was preparing to become a teacher herself.
   "I told her she wouldn't know if this was really the career for her until she got in there and spent some time with kids," Neill said.
   The would-be teacher took her mother's advice and spent a whole year mentoring an eighth-grader every Friday. Today, Neill's daughter is a teacher at South Park Middle School; the student she mentored graduated from Moody High School in May.
   This year, Communities in Schools hopes to sign up 85 mentors. For more information about mentoring, call 878-2304.

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