iMentor Blog

Lisbeth (mentee) was placed in a 3 year match with a mentor last year through iMentor’s partnership with The Bronx Academy of Letters . Lizbeth is a senior in high school and she is matched with volunteer mentor Regina Jones who is a first time mentor.

Regina and Lisbeth meet once a week at the iMentor Drop-In center to work together on the college application process. About her match with Lisbeth, Regina says, "Learning life lessons from a 17 year old was not my expectation in becoming a mentor; however, I am truly receiving as much as I am giving."

Pair Profile: Carmela and Ceez

Ceez (mentee) was matched with a mentor this year through iMentor’s partnership with The Urban Assembly School for Careers in Sports. Ceez is a junior in high school and a spoken word artist who regularly performs with the New York youth spoken word organization, "Urban Word". Ceez is matched with volunteer mentor Carmela Luzzi who is a first time mentor. Carmela likes iMentor because of the flexibility it offers her enabling her to develop a positive relationship with a NYC teenager.

Ceez was not initially interested in the iMentor program. However, after being matched with Carmela, a mentor who recognized her creativity and passion for spoken word, Ceez has opened up through her emails and in-person meetings. Carmela and Ceez have begun to develop their relationship as they continue to email excidedly and make plans to meet in person as often as possible.

Mentoring Gets a New Fan

Youth mentoring just a very big new fan: President-Elect Barack Obama. On December 19, the New York Times reported that Obama is set to appear in a public service campaign in support of National Mentoring Month, which has been celebrated each January since 2002. In the print ad, Obama appears above the headline, “Be the change. Mentor a child.”

Dr. Jay A.Winsten of the Center for Health Communication at the Harvard School of Public Health, who was involved in Obama’s campaign, told the Times that encouraging mentoring is “a public health effort” just like “substance abuse prevention or violence prevention.” Winsten predicts Obama will make public service a central cause of his presidency. “I would say volunteer service’s moment has arrived,” he said.

Or as Obama said in a speech excerpted in the mentoring campaign, “We need your service, right now, in this moment, our moment, in history.”

Holiday Mentor Meet-Up

Every month, iMentor holds a networking event for its mentors to get together, support each other in the important work that they do and learn more about all of the members of our iMentor community. Last Wednesday, over 60 mentors and iMentor staff members came together at Stone Creek Tavern to celebrate the first semester of the program year and to share some holiday cheer.

In my line of work, I look for those moments where I can step back and see how people are really making a difference. Last night was certainly one of those moments. It was so inspiring to hear all of your stories about your mentees, to learn about the efforts you have put into being constructive and to see such earnest dedication to giving back to New York City youth.

Our mentors are having a real impact on our mentees. Especially during these very trying and unpredictable times, our mentors’ efforts have a direct effect on increasing the chances that our mentees will go to college and work towards a secure future.

I sincerely thank you for all of your efforts. The iMentor staff and I feel extremely fortunate to be working with such an impressive group of bright, compassionate and fun-loving

First Ever iMentor Brochure

This month, iMentor created its first ever brochure. The new iMentor brochure provides an overview of iMentor's New York City programming as well as it's national and international reach through iMentor Interactive.

iMentor's 2008 Urban Hero

In 2005, iMentor was selected to become a member of The Catalog for Giving. For the last twelve years, The Catalog has highlighted the impact of its member agencies by hosting an annual event to honor the young people that they serve. Mentee, Josephare, accepted the 2008 Urban Hero Award on behalf of iMentor, along with 9 other extraordinary young people who, through tenacity, hard work, and courage, have overcome difficult life challenges to become role models for others in their communities. In accepting the award, Josephare gave a speech to more than 500 attendees, sharing her moving story about immigrating from Haiti and how her mentor, Jalena, and iMentor have helped her to reach her future academic and career goals -- to attend a four-year college and become a forensic scientist.

iMentor is witnessing an inspiring phenomenon in the midst of the dire news emanating from the financial world. Until recently, one of iMentor’s largest corporate partners was Lehman Brothers, which provided financial support for iMentor’s programs and more than 100 employees serving as volunteer mentors. When the Lehman collapse became evident, iMentor was unsure how many of the firm’s 117 volunteers would stay onboard in light of their own unstable professional lives. On the day that Lehman’s corporate philanthropy division announced it was no longer able to partner with the organization, iMentor sent an email to the Lehman volunteers letting them know they were welcome to continue mentoring--even without the support of Lehman.

Within hours, iMentor’s phones were ringing off the hook with Lehman employees calling to say they absolutely wanted to continue mentoring with iMentor. One volunteer said that it was his, “one ray of light in the midst of the crisis.” To-date, an astounding 97 of the 117 Lehman volunteers have stayed with the program. Of the 40 Lehman volunteers in the middle of multi-year mentoring commitments, 38 have committed to fulfilling their promise of working with their mentee until that student graduates high school.

Mentors like Gordon McKemie, who was working as an analyst at Lehman when the company collapsed, are now using the experience to provide lessons to New York City youth. "It's been a great opportunity for me to highlight the importance of education and flexibility--knowing that even if something happens with your employer, you have skills that will be in demand elsewhere in the workplace,” says McKemie, who is entering his second year of mentoring Ricardo, a senior at the Bronx Academy of Letters. “If I were working at a plant and the plant closed, my options would be limited. Going to college and doing high level work with my employer--I'm now able to take that elsewhere."

Eric Craig, who is beginning his second year of mentoring a student at the East-West School of International Studies in Queens, says, “Young people sometimes emulate elders who show strength, hard work, and resiliency. Despite uncertainty regarding the varying career issues that I’m currently incurring, it’s extremely important that I strive to continue my relationship with my mentee."

iMentor is thrilled to announce our newest Board Member, Charles Best, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of DonorsChoose.org.

DonorsChoose.org is a website where everyday people can make a big difference in public schools, one classroom at a time. DonorsChoose.org has been profiled as “the future of philanthropy” by The New York Times and as “a revolutionary charity” by Oprah Winfrey. Charles founded the organization at Wings Academy, a public high school in the Bronx where he was a social studies teacher for five years.

We are so happy to have Charles Best as our newest Board member and welcome Charles to the iMentor team!

iMentor kicked off the "Step UP and Register to VOTE" event with seniors at Careers in Sports in September! Eligible mentees completed their voter registration applications with their mentors while younger mentees signed "Voter Registration Pledge Cards" promising to register to vote when they become of age. During the event, all pairs participated in a group discussion about politics and the election. Mentees were passionate about many issues including the war in Iraq, immigration reform, and healthcare. Mentors also had the opportunity to share their views on voting and important issues in the election. All the pairs received packets with information on the impact of the youth vote as well as online resources to stay informed with election coverage.

Pairs from Bronx Academy of Letters will also "Step UP and Register to VOTE" as part of their October kick-off event.

August 13th, 2008

Vote iMentor: American Express Members Project

Please help us in our efforts to close the youth mentoring gap by nominating iMentor's project submission through the American Express Members Project.

You can take a step towards closing the 15 million youth mentoring gap today by supporting us through Members Project, an exciting initiative that brings people together to make a difference in the world. It's simple. People go online to share ideas for projects and ultimately vote on which projects will share $2.5 million in funds. Our project, “Closing the Youth Mentoring Gap, Changing Lives” would leverage iMentor Interactive and community partnerships to bring e-mentoring opportunities to youth around the country.

July 21st, 2008

Full Circle: Mentee Becomes a Mentor

iMentor held it’s first annual Alumni Pairs Convocation ceremony last week, celebrating a new beginning for pairs that completed their formal commitment in the iMentor program. Held at UBS, the event honored the strong relationships developed throughout the iMentor program year and provided foundation for their continuing success in the years to come.

The keynote speaker at the event was Melissa Benjamin (see speech below). Melissa first became part of the iMentor family in 2000 as a mentee. When Melissa signed up to be a mentor last year, she reconnected with her mentor, Lexy Mayers, and the pair has since remained in close contact. Melissa now serves as a mentor to a new mentee in our program. She has also become a member of our Young Executive Board.

I first became a part of the iMentor family in 2000 during my senior year at Erasmus Hall High School for Business & Technology. My mentor was Lexy Mayers, a Yale graduate and and at that time, employed by American Express. Her emails were always there during our iMentor sessions, full of great advice, encouragement, and resources for college admissions. Lexy also made it to every event hosted by iMentor that year. She was an enthusiastic mentor, and I was just as excited to see her at the events. Lexy even attended my Senior Awards Night. Along with my family, Lexy was able to share a very important night in my high school career. This was the night I found out I was Class Salutatorian, as well as receiving several other academic awards. It meant so much to me that Lexy took the time to go above and beyond her obligation as a mentor to be there for me on such a special night.

After graduation, Lexy and I kept in touch for a while, but lost contact as I fully immersed myself into campus life at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, RI, and she was changing careers, going to grad school, and getting married. Fast-forwarding to 2007, I decided I wanted to be a mentor after speaking with a close friend who was also mentored in the program, and recalling how much fun we had that year. During the application process, I asked if they had any contact info for Lexy. I was able to email her and a few days later we made plans for dinner, and caught up each other on the past 6 years of our lives. Since that dinner date, she and I still keep in touch, and she is still the objective source of advice that I had in high school. This time last year I was in a dead-end job, and was discouraged about finding a job in event planning. Lexy encouraged me to stick with it and not to give up on my passion. Her advice led me to continue a focused job search, and a few months later I was able to land my current job as a Development Associate at Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Brooklyn. I'm excited and challenged every day by work I do for the alumni department of the school. I also start Graduate School this fall at Long Island University- Brooklyn Campus and plan to pursue my Masters in Public Administration so I can go even further as a a fund raising professional.

I think the mentors here tonight will agree with me that iMentor is truly an unexpected gift. The young people we get to interact with are some of the brightest, most charismatic, and endearing individuals you'd ever meet. My experience mentoring Nubia this year was definitely an example of that unexpected gift. I didn't know what to expect when I first met her. She was skeptical of me due to the fact that her past mentors hadn't lived up to their commitments fully. That soon faded away as I continued our emails and made sure I was at all the events she planned to attend. I wanted to make her last year in the program a positive one. In my quest to do that I learned that she is more like me than I thought. Full of conversation, jokes, and questions about the future, Nubia is never at a loss for words, which is great because neither am I. :) I went to her graduation last month and I can't lie, I was a little misty-eyed when she crossed the stage, partially because I knew she would be moving on but mostly because I was so proud of her. I know she will be a great success this fall at Virginia State University.

In closing I want to tell the mentors here tonight to continue what you're doing because it does make a difference. Your thoughtful emails and presence at events means a lot to the students you mentor. And to the mentees, I also want to thank you. Your presence is also important, and your hopes & dreams are shared by your mentors. Use this alumni program and your mentors as a resource as you move on to life after high school. And most of all Mentors & Mentees, keep in touch!

Thank you to Melissa, UBS, iMentor staff, and all of our mentors and mentees for making this such a memorable and exciting event!

July 8th, 2008

End of Year Reflections

Last week, we received this thank you email from Julio, a mentee in our program who has just graduated from George Westinghouse High School, one of our Partner Sites in Brooklyn. We loved this email so much that we thought we'd share it here. (Julio was writing to his Program Coordinator, Hannah Peck.)

This is Julio, Andrew's Mentee. I am here to greatly thank you for the card I have received from you. I thank you very much for attending my graduation, it made me feel like all my hard work is valid and that I can count on people like the ones from iMentor, including you, for support. I thank you very much for being able to reach out to me about the program and linking me with a mentor who I can relate to in my life about my career and my hard work and effort I have put into the days I have gone through with school, from the beginning till the present. I really hope to accomplish my goals and keep up the good work and also when I am in college too. I have to give you big thanks for letting me unlock the skills I thought I didn't have, but thanks to you I now see that I can reach out to others to work together and be a team, or work by myself and still be successful. I also thanked Andrew over the phone. I am really happy to have Andrew as my mentor because he has given me some of his examples about his life and how I can be also successful in life and pursue my career. I am thankful to have the iMentor team next to my side.

June 22nd, 2008

iMentor Mentees @ the Prom

This week, the New York Times is profiling one of our Partner Sites, the International High School at Prospect Heights. This school works exclusively with recent immigrant students who have been in the US four years or less and iMentor is providing a mentor for every senior in the school. The New York Times piece follows these pairs as they prepare for their first prom. See the NYT article and video below.

June 10th, 2008

1,000 Mentors. Mentor Recruitment Begins!

This year, iMentor will connect 1,000 young people in New York City’s underserved communities with 1,000 volunteer mentors. Join us in making a HUGE difference in the lives of young people today!

(2) Sign up for a training in June or early July to be given priority in the matching process. To do so, go to the iMentor calendar once you have completed your application and RSVP.

June 8th, 2008

Work @ iMentor: New Job Openings

Want to work at one of the fastest growing and most innovative youth-development programs in the country? iMentor is currently hiring for the following positons:

Please check back often, as more positions will be posted soon. In the meantime you can:

April 1st , 2008

iMentor Launches Online Donor Drive

It takes less than 10 minutes to sign up and participate in the Online Donor Drive!

iMentor's Online Donor Drive is a fundraising initiative that allows mentors and other supporters to tap into their personal networks to raise (crucial) funds to fuel iMentor's growth. Our goal is to create a personalized webpage for each of our mentors to send out to their friends, family, co-workers, and entire network. What that allows us to do is collect small online donations from all over the country and increase the amount of people that know about the program.

Kenny was one of the first mentors to sign up for the Online Donor Drive and has already raised $900!

March 14th , 2008

iMentor Online: YouTube & Facebook

iMentor recently launched two exciting new online initiatives to help spread the word about the program and expand our network of supporters. Please check out our new YouTube Non-Profit Channel and Facebook Cause, sign up to join us in these new spaces and invite everyone you know.

Each of these online spaces offers great information about iMentor, ways to sign up to become involved and a place for online donations. Join now!

March 6th , 2008

96% of Mentees Graduate!

It’s troubling but true, only 60% of all New York City high school students graduate. That’s why we were so proud when we received the following information: 96% of iMentor's senior class graduated high school last year!

We’re so proud of these mentor-mentee pairs. Last year’s graduating class represents students from four high schools in three New York City boroughs. These pairs have worked together, often in multi-year matches, to lay the foundation for mentee’s personal, academic and career success.

But the work does not stop here. 87% of last year’s mentees began their college career this September, and many are still in touch with their mentor through iMentor’s Alumni Pairs program.

What’s the impact of graduating high school? No small thing. Recent studies show that the average annual income of a high school graduate is $6,500 more than that of non-graduates. That’s $120,000 over a lifetime.

A big congratulations to all of last year’s senior class. We couldn’t be more proud of what they accomplished together and can’t wait to see where they go from here!

March 6th , 2008

Teacher Feedback: iMentor's Impact

This month, iMentor launched a new partnership with the Urban Assembly School for Careers in Sports. As with all new partnerships, our mentors traveled to the school this week to meet their mentees for the first time at the iMentor Kick-Off Event. The event was a huge success and when we came into the office the following morning, we were greeted by an amazing email from a Careers in Sports teacher, Sharon Aiuvalasit. This email made us feel so good we thought we'd share it here.

I just wanted to take the opportunity to once again thank you for the wonderful event you and your iMentor team organized for our students last night. It was such a rewarding and educational experience for me to see my students interact with their mentors in such a positive way and for such an extended period of time.

As teachers, we often pigeon-hole students into categories based on their attitudes and behaviors in our class and it was so refreshing to see their personalities blossom outside of the classroom! It was such a great reminder not to judge students based on one setting.

Not only that it was just a fun, fun, fun evening! The quality of the character and commitment displayed by each of the mentors was inspiring and I thank you for bringing each of them into the lives of our students. I am so hopeful for the future of this program and how much of a more comprehensive and quality education the students at the Urban Assembly School for Careers in Sports will receive as a result of their participation.

Thank you, thank you, and thank you again for all of your hard work each day for our students. See you on Thursday!

February 20th, 2008

Arjenis (mentee) was matched with a mentor this year through iMentor’s partnership with Queens Vocational and Technical High School. Arjenis is a senior in high school and is matched with volunteer mentor Jon Levy (a 1st time mentor).

Arjenis wants to improve in school and is a very bright young man; Jon is very driven and he challenges Arjenis in emails to be better and achieve greater things. He pushes Arjenis with intelligent conversation and helps him define his goals. Since the beginning of their mentoring relationship, Arjenis and Jon have shared ideas on everything from the college admission process, sports, books, and a variety of socio-political topics. Through their work with the iMentor program, Arjenis and Jon have developed a strong mentoring relationship They often speak and email more than two times a week!

February 13th, 2008

On February 13th, iMentor was featured as a part of the keynote address during the Salesforce Foundation annual summit: Innovation for Non-Profit Success. iMentor's CEO, Mike O'Brien, addressed a crowd of over 200 attendees and discussed iMentor's evolution from a small New York City start-up working to develop a new kind of mentoring model to an emerging national leader in the youth mentoring field.

January 25th, 2008

Mentee Profile: Keshia

There's no better way to learn about our program than to hear our mentees and mentors talk about their experience. In Novemeber of 2007, Keshia, an iMentor mentee from International High School Prospect Heights gave a speech at the Urban Hero Awards to more than 300 attendees, sharing her moving story of assimilating to life in the US and the impact her mentor and iMentor has had on her future academic and career goals. A special thanks to Keshia's mentor Deborah, for being such a supportive presence in Keisha's life.

January 24th, 2008

iMentor Receives BBBS NYC Mentoring Award

In honor of the 10th Anniversary of their Mentoring Supervisor Certificate Program , Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City hosted a Celebration Luncheon and Alumni Awards on January 23rd. iMentor was selected from among BBBS’s 900 alumni for the Longevity Award, granted to an outstanding mentoring program that has provided long-term, quality mentoring in New York City. BBBS’s Julia Schwartz, Education and Legislation Manager, spoke to a large audience of NYC mentoring professionals about iMentor’s innovative, technology-based approach to mentoring and our enormous success in creating 5,000 matches over the past 8 years.

iMentor would like to thank Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City, in particular the Center for Training and Professional Development, for their long-standing commitment to youth development agencies who seek to develop and implement mentoring “best practices” and quality programming. Accepting on behalf of iMentor was Managing Director of Programs, Kimberley Ednie, a 2007 alumna of BBBS’s acclaimed Mentoring Supervisor Certificate Program.

January 24th, 2008

Where Our Mentees Come From

People ask us all the time how we select mentees to enroll in the iMentor program. This is a crucial decision for mentoring programs and there are several approaches. Some organizations allow mentees to “opt-in,” to nominate themselves or to be recommended for the program by family members, teachers or community leaders. iMentor takes a different approach.

We believe strongly in serving the New York City youth that can benefit the most from mentoring and work hard to assure we are connecting our volunteer mentors with high school students living in communities other mentoring programs cannot reach. We feel that the students who need mentoring the most are not necessarily the students that will ask for a mentor, or have an advocate who will connect them to a mentoring program. To this end, iMentor’s selection process begins by:

(1) Identifying the communities in New York City that are the most economically and geographically isolated (traditionally the same communities that have the most difficultly finding and engaging mentors); and

(2) Finding dynamic schools and after school programs to enroll a cohort of students and to assist us in facilitating the program.

Each of our partner sites enrolls 50 - 100 students and integrates iMentor into the school’s culture. Partner Sites allow us to assure that all mentees have regular access to email and the internet, as well as support for their participation in the program. Each partner sites provides a volunteer teacher to work closely with out staff and one-to-two hours per week in a computer lab where students can read emails from their mentors and compose a reply. This model allows iMentor to establish a “culture of mentoring” in these schools and after school programs, creating a feeling shared of engagement among mentees as they embark on this new experience as well as a network of working professionals that can become advocates for our mentees’ schools and communities.

These partner sites are integral to iMentor’s success and we thank all of our 2007-08 partners for their dedication to the program.

January 23rd, 2008

iMentor Invited to the White House

iMentor has been invited to the White House! On Wednesday, January 23, 2008, iMentor will participate in a Compassion in Action Roundtable, titled “Faith-Based and Community Mentoring that Changes Lives.” convened by the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Hosted by OFBCI Director Jay Hein and keynoted by America's Promise Alliance Chief Executive Officer Marguerite Kondracke, the roundtable brought together government officials, policymakers, business leaders, foundation representatives, philanthropists and faith-based and community leaders to highlight innovative and effective policies and partnerships in mentoring and ways President Bush’s Faith-Based and Community Initiative is working to transform lives. President Bush proclaimed January 2008 as National Mentoring Month and called on all Americans to recognize the importance of mentoring, to look for opportunities to serve as mentors in their communities, and to observe this month with appropriate activities and programs.

Learn more about this series of Compassion in Action Roundtables and the Office of Faith-Based and Community Issues HERE.

January 19th, 2008

iMentor Joins the America's Promise Alliance

In January, iMentor was asked to join the prestigious America’s Promise Alliance. The America’s Promise Alliance is the nation’s largest multi-sector collaborative dedicated to the well-being of children and youth. The Alliance leads the way in forging multi-sector partnerships, bringing together:

Alliance Partners dedicate themselves to work jointly for the success of our young people, using the Five Promises framework to shape their efforts and improve the odds for youth. Together, Alliance partners are working on our National Action Strategies to deliver more of the Five Promises to 15 million children in the next five years.

iMentor will be leveraging its iMentor Interactive national program to collaborate on the America’s Promise Alliance work around integrating mentoring into its National Action Strategies.

December 20th, 2007

Mentors & Mentees Give Back

Last week, iMentor sponsored four community service events, attended by 180 mentor-mentee pairs. The community service projects allowed pairs to reflect on the meaning of community, service, and mentoring.

Pairs crafted community murals for iMentor partner schools, created over 300 holiday cards for homebound elderly clients receiving holiday dinners through the City Meals-on-Wheels Program, and created 300 Goodwill Bags which will be donated to the students of The Door.

In the spirit of giving and community service, our mentor-mentee pairs offered their time and generosity to helping others. In the process, they continued to cultivate their relationships by sharing their own stories of celebration. Thank you to all of our mentors and mentees for making such an important act of kindness, generosity, and service so successful!

We’d like to send a special thank you to our corporate partners at Morrison & Foerster, Credit Suisse, and UBS for their generous donation of event space.

December 7th, 2007

iMentor Featured on WNBC

Last night, WNBC news correspondent Perri Peltz ran a feature on iMentor as part of the New York Nightly News.

The piece profiled two of our phenomenal mentor-mentee pairs, both matched in multi-year relationships, both committed to working together until their mentee graduates high school. Click on the video below to see Deborah Mason (from Goldman Sachs), matched with Keisha through our partnership at International High School Prospect Heights and Antonia Townsend (a new Young Executive Board Member ) matched with her mentee Pincess-Joy (at Bronx Prep). See below for iMentor's big night in the news!

December 5th, 2007

Kick Off's Kick Off

It's our favorite time of year here at iMentor, Kick-Off season, the months of November and December where mentors travel to their mentee's home community, to visit their mentee's school, and our pairs meet in person for the first time.

This year, we have seen more pairs meet in the first six weeks of being matched than any year in iMentor's history. With an estimated 80-90% Kick-Off attendance city wide! We thank our mentors and mentees for taking this important first step and iMentor's Program Coordinators for making it all possible!

View Older Posts >

July 2007 - November 2007

iMentor Blog

Pair Profile: Regina and Lisbeth

Pair Profile: Carmela and Ceez

Mentoring Gets a New Fan

Holiday Mentor Meet-Up

First Ever iMentor Brochure

iMentor's 2008 Urban Hero

August 13th, 2008

Vote iMentor: American Express Members Project

July 21st, 2008

Full Circle: Mentee Becomes a Mentor

July 8th, 2008

End of Year Reflections

June 22nd, 2008

iMentor Mentees @ the Prom

June 10th, 2008

1,000 Mentors. Mentor Recruitment Begins!

June 8th, 2008

Work @ iMentor: New Job Openings

April 1st , 2008

iMentor Launches Online Donor Drive

March 14th , 2008

iMentor Online: YouTube & Facebook

March 6th , 2008

96% of Mentees Graduate!

March 6th , 2008

Teacher Feedback: iMentor's Impact

February 20th, 2008

February 13th, 2008

January 25th, 2008

Mentee Profile: Keshia

January 24th, 2008

iMentor Receives BBBS NYC Mentoring Award

January 24th, 2008

Where Our Mentees Come From

January 23rd, 2008

iMentor Invited to the White House

January 19th, 2008

iMentor Joins the America's Promise Alliance

December 20th, 2007

Mentors & Mentees Give Back

December 7th, 2007

iMentor Featured on WNBC

December 5th, 2007

Kick Off's Kick Off