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Our blog features posts on new program developments, profiles of our mentor-mentee pairs and news from the mentoring and youth-development fields. Check back often to see what we've been up to or sign up to receive email updates.

iMentor Hosts Its Annual Spring Benefit at the Bowery Hotel

Posted on June 15, 2013 - 4:15pm
Guests and iMentor supporters enjoying drinks and conversation on the outdoor Bowery Hotel terrace.

At iMentor's Spring Benefit on June 13, 2013, mentors, supporters, and friends of iMentor gathered at New York City's The Bowery Hotel for an evening in celebration of mentoring. More than 350 guests joined us to celebrate the impact our programs are having on the lives of all participants, as well as the hard work of our mentors. We were so inspired to see our amazing mentor community, who are helping their mentees graduate high school, succeed in college, and achieve their ambitions, come together on the Bowery Hotel’s indoor/outdoor terrace for a fun-filled night.

View photos from the event.

Our Spring Benefit event sponsors included Complex Media and the Princeton Review. Guests enjoyed delicious food and drinks by our in-kind sponsors, Russian Standard Vodka, Brooklyn Brewery, Kaserei Champignon, Insomnia Cookies, and Baked by Melissa. DJ Cameron Smalls played crowd-pleasing favorites as our mentors and supporters met and mingled on the terrace and posed for pictures on the iMentor red carpet. Guests also had the opportunity to bid on our exclusive silent auction items, including a Manhattan GMAT prep course, New York Mets tickets, dinner for two at the James Beard House, and more.

iMentor CEO Mike O’Brien addressed the crowd to thank our mentors, supporters, and friends who have helped us expand to reach 2,400 students at 19 public schools across New York City this past year and continue growing to reach 3,000 pairs in the coming year. Mike also gave insight into the exciting work we have planned for the future and noted how vital our mentors are to the success of iMentor’s New York City program.  

Spring Benefit event co chairs included Chris Ashley and Tim Kleiman, and hosts included Hogan Chen, Ashley Clark, Candace Credito, Chris Gorgone, Renu Grover, Edward Hartman, Jessica Kelly, Josh Navarro, Olga Ovodenko, David Scully, and Ben Tannenbaum. The event raised more than $85,000 for iMentor’s programs. Proceeds will support iMentor’s ongoing efforts to build mentoring relationships that empower students from low-income communities to graduate high school, succeed in college, and achieve their ambitions.

We were thrilled to see so many of you at this event and thank you for making the evening such a success. We hope you will join us this year as we provide more students from low-income communities with strong mentors dedicated to their success in high school, college, and beyond. 

Texting for College Success

Posted on June 13, 2013 - 7:22pm

When is the deadline for class registration? How do I make sure my financial aid is in place? How do I sign up for campus housing? The answers to these important questions, and many more, will now be at the fingertips of college-bound students, thanks to an innovative text message alert program for students with iMentor, a leading New York City-based youth mentoring organization.

Our CEO, Mike O'Brien, announced this pilot campaign this week at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) America meeting as a CGI Commitment to Action. This project is an innovative cross-sector partnership with colleges, college success organizations and foundations, to further iMentor’s mission to help students in low-income communities successfully transition to and complete college.  Funded with grants provided to iMentor by the Citi Foundation and The Heckscher Foundation for Children, the program’s goal is to significantly decrease the college graduation gap for students from the bottom-income quartile; only 12% of whom reach graduation. 

“We are very excited to launch the text message campaign for college-bound students,” said iMentor CEO Mike O’Brien.  “Research shows that anywhere from 10%-40% of low income and first-generation college students change their plans over the summer due to logistical, financial or personal issues.  This program is a simple, cost effective way to offer meaningful, individualized support to students as they make this transition. We’re grateful that the Citi Foundation and The Heckscher Foundation for Children are funding this project as well as the expansion of our work with college students.”

The text message campaign will kick off this summer for 600 college-bound students in the iMentor program in New York City.  These students will receive a series of text messages for 10 weeks about important college-related tasks and deadlines, specific to each student’s college.  As a part of the campaign, each student’s mentor will also receive text messages about their mentee’s matriculation requirements and suggestions on how to support them in the process. 

“Academic preparation is only one aspect of ensuring students get to and through college – for many, the additional responsibility of managing their registration, scheduling, and financial obligations is daunting,” said  Pamela Flaherty, President and CEO of the Citi Foundation.  “We are pleased to support iMentor’s innovative efforts to use technology to provide another way that mentors, including many Citi employees, can directly support the academic ambitions of these students.”  

“The Heckscher Foundation is committed to finding innovative strategies for leveling the playing field for qualified youth in college readiness and retention. iMentor has developed some exciting tools for doing just that, and we are pleased to help support it in this effort,”  said Peter Sloane, CEO and Chairman, The Heckscher Foundation for Children.

The campaign was inspired by a study by two Harvard University-researchers, Benjamin Castelman and Lindsay Page, who concluded that college enrollment rates were four to seven percentage points higher for students in low-income communities who received personalized text messaging about college tasks compared to those who did not receive text messages.

iMentor is working in partnership with researchers Benjamin Castleman and Lindsay Page, and a variety of college success-oriented non-profit organizations to develop matriculation guides for colleges across New York state.  Text messages for the campaign will be written to reflect the information and the deadlines outlined in the guides. 

The campaign will officially begin on June 24, when the first set of text messages to students and mentors will be sent.  The campaign will conclude on September 2nd, at which time the messaging and college enrollment data for all students will be reviewed by iMentor and its partners to improve and expand the program in the future.

iMentor Staff: Committed to Volunteerism and New York City Students

iMentor Posted on May 22, 2013 - 10:28am

All iMentor staff members share the belief that every young person can succeed in high school, college, and their careers when they are given the resources, support, and guidance they need. That’s why they work with passion, enthusiasm, and dedication toward iMentor’s mission in their daily work—and it is why more than 30 iMentor employees take their commitment to the next level by volunteering as mentors themselves. Staff ranging from managing directors to coordinators to our CEO, Mike O’Brien, volunteer to help guide and grow iMentor’s impact through working one-on-one with New York City high school students toward college success. All of these staff members report that seeing their mentees succeed is the biggest reward of volunteering because it lets them know they are making a difference. Check out these amazing mentoring stories straight from the iMentor team.

iMentor bake-off
Nick (left) and his mentee, Joshua

Nick Ortiz, Operations Manager, recently attended his last iMentor event as a formal mentor to Joshua, a senior at Urban Assembly School for Careers in Sports, who was accepted to John Jay College for Criminal Justice. After four years of work with Joshua, Nick will be attending Joshua’s graduation. “Specifically as a Latino male, it gives me fulfillment to see young students of color get the guidance they need to succeed,” Nick says.

 

 

iMentor bake-offCeline (left) with her mentee, Letishia
Celine Patel, Corporate Partnerships and Individual Giving Manager, is currently matched with her third mentee, Letishia, a senior at Bronx Preparatory High School who will begin her freshman year of college at SUNY Delhi in the fall. In 2012, after successfully completing two mentoring matches and joining iMentor’s Young Executive Board, Celine joined the organization as a full-time employee—at about the same time her second mentee, Chanil, completed her first semester of college at SUNY Buffalo State. “It’s been most rewarding to watch the breakthroughs that happen for my mentees through our work together,” Celine says.

 

iMentor bake-off
Larry (right) and his mentee, Randy
Larry Mahl, Volunteer Manager, is one year into a four-year match with Randy, a freshman at the Academy for Software Engineering. Though Larry has worked in the fields of youth development and college access throughout his career, he is now able to focus on the individual development of one student. Not only is this rewarding, it also makes him better at his job. “In my role at iMentor, I’m responsible for communicating what it means to be a mentor to people who are interested in getting involved. So having this experience has been invaluable,” he says.

 

iMentor bake-off
Maria (left) with her former mentee, Nelly
Maria Pendolino, Special Projects Manager, began mentoring in 2004—and she has been involved with iMentor in various capacities ever since. Her former mentee, Nelly, is about to graduate from Brooklyn College with a degree in Scenic Design, and her current mentee, Cheyenne, was recently admitted to Rochester Institute of Technology to study computer engineering. “Cheyenne has a really bright future ahead of her,” Maria says. “As an African American woman from an underrepresented neighborhood going into a field that is mostly men, she is doing big things.”

 

We are continually inspired by our staff’s willingness to go above and beyond their roles each year as mentors to New York City youth.

If you are interested in signing up to help a young person on their path to college, fill out a mentor application today.

Min and Marta: Two Teachers Making Mentoring Work

Posted on May 7, 2013 - 10:31am
Marta (top) and Min with students at LESP

iMentor’s work in New York City wouldn’t be possible without the commitment of the teachers at our partner high schools. Today, on National Teacher Appreciation Day, we want to thank two teachers at Lower East Side Preparatory High School (LESP), Min Zhao and Marta Ralston, who have spent years supporting the mentoring relationships between students at their school and iMentor volunteers.

Jana Chandler, iMentor’s director of school partnerships, says, “Min and Marta have shown incredible commitment to supporting our mentee-mentor pairs at LESP. Their enthusiasm for our program has allowed LESP pairs to build strong and lasting relationships that have been invaluable to mentee and mentor alike.”

iMentor first met Min the first year of our partnership with LESP, in 2003, when iMentor was still a new program at a handful of schools across the city. She even worked with our CEO, Mike O’Brien, early in his career, when he was a program coordinator at the school. Marta Ralston joined Min as a vital part of the iMentor family in 2010.

Strong partnerships with schools, and particularly with teachers, are an essential part of the iMentor program. At LESP, a transfer high school serving students ages 17-21 that is popular in the Chinese community, students in the advanced levels of the English as a Second Language program are matched with a mentor, and they attend an iMentor class session once a week. In these classes, iMentor staff, with support from Min and Marta, instruct the students on the iMentor college-readiness curriculum and help students craft emails to their mentors. Both teachers read and grade every students’ email prior to class each week--hundreds of emails--which has been instrumental in furthering mentees’ writing abilities.

Additionally, Min and Marta have chaperoned dozens of iMentor events over the years, where mentee-mentor pairs meet in person to work toward curriculum goals and build strong mentoring relationships. These have included trips to the iMentor office, museums, and even CitiField to see a Mets game. In all, we estimate that these two dedicated teachers have supported more than 790 students in our program, graded 18,170 emails, and attended 56 events.

Anna Lemler, an iMentor program coordinator at LESP, says, “Min and Marta care deeply for their students and believe strongly in the power of mentoring. Their passion and dedication have been a wonderful inspiration to me, and to all the program coordinators who have worked with them.”

iMentor thanks Min, Marta--and the teachers at all of our partner schools--for being role models to their students and to all of us.

Mark Your Calendars for the 2013 iMentor Extravaganza!

Posted on May 2, 2013 - 12:50pm

Our mentors and mentees work hard all school year long to build strong relationships that help students develop key college-success skills—and the annual iMentor Extravaganza is their chance to celebrate all they have achieved together! We’re excited to announce that the 2013 iMentor Extravaganza will be on Saturday, June 8, from 12:00 - 4:00 PM at Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn.

Our signature year-end event, the Extravaganza brings together hundreds of our mentors, mentees, and supporters for an afternoon of music, food, and games. It is the only event to which we invite all of our participating mentor-mentee pairs—this year, that’s 2,400 pairs! View photos of last year's event, which included face-painting, group games, and a much-anticipated tug of war.

Mentors and mentees will receive an invitation to the event from their program coordinator through the iMentor Interactive email platform. We hope to see you there this year! 

Join Us at Our Spring Benefit on June 12

Posted on April 18, 2013 - 4:59pm
Our mentors and friends enjoying cocktails and conversation at iMentor's 2012 Spring Benefit.

iMentor is proud to host its annual Spring Benefit on Wednesday, June 12 at the Bowery Hotel in New York City, and we hope to see you there! Our community of mentors, supporters, and partners will gather in the expansive indoor/outdoor terrace of the Bowery Hotel to celebrate the accomplishments of our mentor community over the past year.

Guests will enjoy signature drinks, hors d’oeuvres, and entertainment. They will also have the opportunity to bid on exclusive auction items such as tickets to a live taping of Bravo TV’s Watch What Happens Live and local sports games as well as designer clothing and accessories. Proceeds from the evening will support iMentor’s ongoing efforts to build mentoring relationships that empower students in low-income communities to graduate high school, succeed in college, and achieve their ambitions.

Last year’s Spring Benefit brought together 400 friends of iMentor at the Bowery Hotel for a fabulous evening in celebration of mentoring. We heard from our mentor community about the most rewarding aspects of working with the youth in our program, and guests enjoyed cocktails and conversation. You can view photos of last year’s event here.

Join us for this year’s event by purchasing a ticket or signing up to be a part of iMentor’s Spring Benefit Leadership group. Contact Stacey Gorman for more information. If you cannot attend, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to iMentor today.

Mentee Reflection: Making College Possible with an Idealistic Mentor

Posted on April 16, 2013 - 4:33pm
Bernice (left) on her high school graduation day with her mentor, Marika.

College Possible in Saint Paul, Minnesota, partners with iMentor Interactive to run the Idealistic Mentors Initiative. As part of the Idealistic Mentors Initiative, students receive one-on-one guidance from mentors through weekly curriculum-based emails and monthly in-person events that are facilitated by College Possible coaches and support staff. In the story below, Bernice, a freshman at Lawrence University in Wisconsin, reflects on her time thus far in the Idealistic Mentors Initiative.

I think one of the most important experiences of my high school career was being part of College Possible. My senior year in high school the program introduced the Idealistic Mentor Initiative and we were each paired with mentors to help us through our journey of college applications, scholarships, acceptances, and other things. I was apprehensive at first about receiving a mentor because I was not sure that I wanted to share information with someone I did not know and I was nervous about the kind of relationship I would have with my mentor. When I met Marika, she was very nice and welcoming. We got to know each other through the weekly e-mail assignments and monthly meetings, and I gradually became more comfortable with keeping her updated. One thing I appreciate was that she did not try to force a relationship, especially in the beginning. She listened to what I had to say and she would share stories of her experiences as a high school senior, and that is how we connected.

Having my mentor as part of my support system, as well as her advice, really helped me through the college process. She offered her encouragement when I was rejected at a college I wanted to go to. When I made the decision to go to Lawrence University, she told me that I had made a great choice, and she was right! She made an attempt to be at all the College Possible events, even if she could only be there for 20 minutes to support me. A very memorable moment was her being at my graduation and saying how proud she was of me. As I prepared to come to college, she gave me practical advice such as being careful not to over-pack, joining different co-curricular clubs, and choosing classes early.

With almost two-thirds of my freshman year completed, I still find her advice and our relationship a key part of my success at Lawrence. I try to keep her updated as much as I can, and she keeps me updated, as well. We talk about anything from academics to friendships, campus life activities, and everything in between. We also try to get together when I come home for breaks, and try to catch up. I really appreciate her genuine care and support, and I have benefitted so much from having her as a mentor.

--Bernice

The iMentor Women’s Committee: Mentoring and Supporting the Next Generation of Professional Women—and Each Other

Posted on April 8, 2013 - 11:00am
Anne Rollett, second from left, and attendees from a 2012 Women’s Committee event.

Ask any of the successful professionals who make up iMentor’s Women’s Committee why they joined this special leadership group, and you’ll hear the same response: I want to surround myself with women who are motivated to support one another.

Committee member Toni McLaurin explains it this way: “It's empowering to be around a group of women who have succeeded themselves and who also recognize the importance of sharing that with other people. It’s still hard to find high-powered women in some career fields,” Toni says. “And it's important for us to come together.”

As an associate professor of orthopaedic surgery at the New York University Hospital for Joint Diseases, Toni knows something about professional trailblazing. As a black woman in a male-dominated field—and medical specialty—Toni never had a mentor and dedicates her free time to mentoring college and medical students in the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. She wanted to get involved with iMentor because she recognizes that young women, particularly first-generation college students, need female role models as they explore college and careers. Without mentors, she fears young women may ask themselves, “What makes me think I can do it if others haven’t done it before?”

iMentor’s Women’s Committee is comprised of caring, visionary women like Toni who are committed to helping the next generation of women succeed in college and their careers. Through special events and learning opportunities, the Women’s Committee works to identify and address unique challenges faced by the young women iMentor supports.

May 15, the Women’s Committee will host recent high school graduates and their mentors at its second panel event at Sarabeth’s. Committee members, their guests, and mentor-mentee pairs will engage in an enriching discussion about how to best market yourself in college and to employers.

Committee member Anne Rollett, of Amerro Asset Management, believes events like these allow women to give each other constructive advice. “For a teenage girl who is facing challenges, it’s nice to have a female role model to tell her: you are in control of your own life.”

As a mentor in the iMentor program, Anne is already helping her mentee, Yvette, work through challenges in the college applications process. When Yvette didn’t get into her top-choice college, Anne was there to keep Yvette positive through the process by telling her about a similar experience she had when she was applying to school. “She found it comforting to know that things worked out better for me in the long-run because I didn’t get into my top choice school,” Anne said. “I told her to have a good cry today, and tomorrow, you keep going.” Yvette’s been accepted to three colleges, and she can count on Anne’s support to keep going as she thinks through her college decision.

Toni and Anne are two dynamic professionals who make up a diverse committee of women supporting our mentees, mentors, and one another. At the event in May, we’re looking forward to expanding the network of women getting involved—and to the unique opportunity our mentees have to learn from such an inspiring group.

To get involved in iMentor’s Women’s Committee, email Stacey Gorman.

Mentors Break Fundraising Record in Online Donor Drive

Posted on April 5, 2013 - 12:00pm
Kate Vanek (left), one of our top fundraisers in this year's Online Donor Drive, with her mentee Elbanellys.

One word to describe the success of this year’s Online Donor Drive campaign is unmatched. Each year during this volunteer-driven campaign, our amazing mentors go beyond their roles as volunteers by sharing their mentoring stories on Crowdrise.com and encouraging their family, friends, and colleagues to give to iMentor. This February and March, more than 90 mentors who volunteer at each one of our 19 partner schools created personal fundraising pages. Through their hard work, creativity, and enthusiasm, they surpassed their fundraising goal of $60,000, raising more than $90,000 to support the mentoring relationships of all students in our program. This year marks iMentor’s most successful Online Donor Drive to date!

We’re congratulating all mentors who participated in the campaign, through urging others to support their Crowdrise pages or donating to the campaign themselves. Sarah Tomolonius won the honor of top fundraiser with an impressive $8,025 raised, beating her own record of $8,008 from last year’s Donor Drive. Gordon McKemie, a mentor at Williamsburg Prep, personally matched all gifts up to $3,000 that were made to his page and raised a total of $6,915. Some of our former mentors even joined the fundraising effort, such as Anthony Keizner, who is a member of iMentor’s Young Executive Board. On his page, he shared his pride about his mentee Jamal’s growth in the program—the teen didn’t plan on attending college before meeting Anthony and now attends community college. Encouraging his networks to donate, Anthony wrote: “Jamal now has a much different outlook on his future. Every contribution will help support more mentor-mentee pairs like Jamal and me.” Other top fundraisers included Jay Cofresi, Kate Vanek, Maxwell Swicegood, and many more!

Mentors at KIPP NYC College Prep took the top prize for most money raised, earning all KIPP pairs a special ice cream or bowling party, depending on their year.

Thank you to all of the mentors who played a part in making the campaign an unprecedented success! Your stories are sources of inspiration to the entire iMentor community, and your efforts in this year’s Donor Drive prove that together we can help more youth realize their college ambitions. Click here to see all the amazing pages created for this year’s Donor Drive.

iMentor Launches New Values

Posted on April 2, 2013 - 2:47pm

At iMentor, a set of central beliefs guide the way we implement our mentoring programs, inform how we work with our nonprofit, corporate, and community partners, and shape our organizational culture. After working together as a staff to define the principles that guide our work, iMentor has formalized our six values: Educational Opportunity, Power of Relationships, Human Potential, Collaboration, Excellence, and Joy.

These values inform and help us achieve our mission to empower students in low-income communities to succeed in high school, graduate college, and achieve their ambitions. They also embody what we believe and stand for and also how we approach everything we do.

Our entire staff already makes iMentor’s values a part of how they do their work every day, and now we’re taking time to celebrate how each value comes to life at our office, in our schools, and with our partners. In March, we gave special focus to the value of Joy. Staff members held focus groups to talk about how they bring joy to their work—from appreciating teamwork in their departments to finding satisfaction in reaching milestones in their work—and how joy sustains our staff, partners, and mentors and mentees through challenges. Our program coordinators, who work directly with the students at our 19 partner schools in New York City and their mentors, discussed the importance of taking time to celebrate mentor-mentee pair successes in our program, such as a mentor devoting extra hours to help a student prepare for the SAT or a mentee being awarded scholarships from his top choice college. Other staff posted on our Joy bulletin board to share examples of what gives them fulfillment in their work, such as collaborating with colleagues and strengthening relationships with our community partners. Others shared the perks they love about iMentor, such as “our fabulous staff library” and “coworkers who have a sense of humor.”

We’re excited about the unique ways in which each of our values will help us continue to implement our programs successfully and facilitate high-impact mentoring relationships, as well as help iMentor continue to be an enriching, supportive place to grow as a professional.

Interested in joining our team? Check out our open positions at www.imentor.org/jobs.

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