iMentor Blog

End of Year Reflections

Posted on July 8, 2008 - 12:00am

Julio, his sister and his mentor Andrew

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.)

Julio Wrote

Dear Hannah,

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.

Sincerely,

Julio

iMentor Mentees @ the Prom

Posted on June 22, 2008 - 12:00am

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.

Watch the Video

Read the Article

Learn About the iMentor Partnership

1,000 Mentors. Mentor Recruitment Begins!

Posted on June 10, 2008 - 12:00am

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!

What is required of mentors?

- Make at least a one-year committment (September - June).

- Send one weekly email on an interesting topic that iMentor provides.

- See your mentee once a month for two hours at an iMentor sponsored event

How do you sign up to change a life?

(1) Fill out an online application

(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.

Learn more about becoming a mentor!

Hear mentors and mentees discuss their experience in the program.

Questions? Contact Ellen Mahoney, Volunteer Manager.

Work @ iMentor: New Job Openings

Posted on June 8, 2008 - 12:00am

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:

Program Positions:

Volunteer Coordinator

Program Coordinator

iMentor Interactive Program Coordinator

Development Positions:

Development Manager

The iMentor Team

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

Meet iMentor's current staff and board members

iMentor Launches Online Donor Drive

Posted on April 1, 2008 - 12:00am

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.

Featured Page of the Week

Kenny Eng[UPDATE LINK]

Mentor at Lower East Side Preparatory HS

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

Visit the Page Gallery[UPDATE LINK] to see all mentor pages

Learn more about the Online Donor Drive[UPDATE LINK]

iMentor Online: YouTube & Facebook

Posted on March 14, 2008 - 12:00am

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.

iMentor Non-Profit Channel

Watch our videos

iMentor's Facebook Cause

Expand the iMentor network

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!

96% of Mentees Graduate!

Posted on March 6, 2008 - 1:00am

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!

iMentor's 2006-07 Senior Class
96%	87%
Graduated High School	Enrolled in College

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!

Learn more about iMentor’s Impact

Teacher Feedback: iMentor's Impact

Posted on March 6, 2008 - 1:00am

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.

Sharon Wrote...

Good Morning iMentor!

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!

Sharon

View pictures from the Kick Off Event!

iMentor Featured at Salesforce Foundation Annual Summit*

Posted on February 13, 2008 - 1:00am

Innovation for Non-Profit Success

On February 13th, iMentor was featured as a part of the keynote address during the Salesforce Foundation annual summit: Innovation for Non-Profit Success[update link]. 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.

Learn more about the Salesforce Foundation and iMentor Interactive

Mentee Profile: Keshia*

Posted on January 25, 2008 - 1:00am

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.

See all the pictures from the event