iMentor Blog

Mentors Go Above and Beyond to Support iMentor

iMentor Posted on April 25, 2012 - 10:57am

In February and March, mentors again took to the web to go above and beyond their role as volunteers by participating in our annual Online Donor Drive campaign. With the help of the Crowdrise.com, our amazing mentors went viral, creating personal fundraising pages with stories and photos about their mentees. Over the past few years, the Online Donor Drive has become a growing force in helping to raise funds and awareness to the iMentor program.   This year was no different, raising more than $60,000 from more than 800 donors in 33 states and from three countries! 

Mentors from every one of our 15 partner schools got involved by creating pages. Mentors at the Urban Assembly School for Careers in Sports and the Brooklyn Academy of Letters took top prizes for “Most Mentors Participating” and “Highest Mentor Participation” respectively.  Both schools will be acknowledged and rewarded at our upcoming iMentor Extravaganza in June.  When the page results were tallied, Sarah Tomolonius, a mentor at the Urban Assembly School for Performing Arts, won the honor of being our top fundraiser by successfully raising $8,008. Sarah, who is also a member of iMentor’s Young Executive Board, urged others to support her page by writing, “It's been a phenomenal match, it's incredibly rewarding, and I would be grateful for your support of a program that has a really profound impact on the lives of mentees--and mentors.”

Some of our mentors motivated their networks to give to iMentor with generous incentives. For example, Gordon McKemie personally matched all gifts made to his page over $100 and raised an amazing $4,121. Kenny Eng leveraged social media and his own talents, enticing his Facebook followers to support his page by promising a home cooked, three-course meal to everyone who donated more than $100.

In the end, the true impact was not simply in dollars raised, but also, in stories told. Each mentor who created and shared a page has helped raise awareness about the iMentor program and contributed to our growth.

Thank you to all the mentors that chose to participate! Click here to see all the amazing pages created for this year’s Donor Drive.

Envisioning the Future of Education at Google’s New York Office

iMentor Posted on April 17, 2012 - 3:35pm

What do you think classrooms will be like in 20 years? That was just one of the questions our CEO, Mike O’Brien, posed to panelists last night at our iConnect event held at the Google NYC offices on the future of education. Mentors, supporters, and community partners came together to learn about innovations in education and how citizens can help support our students and schools.

View photos of the event here.

Mike was joined on stage by Charles Best, founder and CEO, DonorsChoose.org and iMentor board member; Greg Gunn, entrepreneur in residence at City Light and Co-Founder Wireless Generation; Sue Lehmann, board Member of Harlem Children’s Zone and Teach For America; and Albert Wenger from Union Square Ventures. The panelists joined in a lively discussion about making school relevant to students’ lives and career goals, improving curriculum, and integrating technology in and out of the classroom. Our mentors also had an opportunity to ask tough questions about replicating successful school models, college access, and the best advice they can give to their mentees.

Thanks to Google, our panelists, participants, and audience for collaborating on this unique learning opportunity and for making the event a success.

iConnect events are special opportunities for mentors and supporters to become more involved with iMentor through social events and learning opportunities. Join our mailing list to learn about upcoming events.

Announcing the 2012 iMentor Extravaganza

iMentor Posted on April 16, 2012 - 11:44am

Mentors and mentees--mark your calendars! We’re excited to announce that the 2012 iMentor Extravaganza will be on Saturday, June 9, from 12:00 - 4:00 PM at Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn.

The iMentor Extravaganza is our signature year-end event where hundreds of our mentors, mentees, and supporters celebrate mentoring and a successful school year with food, music, games and fun! It's your opportunity to spend quality time with your mentee and meet other great pairs.

Check out our photo gallery from the 2011 iMentor Extravaganza for some great images!

Lumina Foundation Recognizes iMentor and Six NextGen Prize Winners

iMentor Posted on April 10, 2012 - 9:22am

We are proud to be one of the six recipients of the Lumina Foundation's NextGen prize, which is funding projects that are helping students from low-income communities reach their college goals. The Lumina Foundation put together this great video about all six projects, including iMentor's work to improve our online platform that connects thousands of volunteers with young people in multi-year mentoring relationships focused on college-readiness.

Join Us for a Special iConnect Event at Google

iMentor Posted on April 3, 2012 - 11:41am

On Monday, April 16, join us for a special discussion, The Next Generation Classroom: Connecting Students, Schools, and Communities, held at Google’s New York City headquarters. After the panel, your are invited to stay for a wine and cheese reception.

We have invited four dynamic speakers to discuss their innovative work and the future of education. Over the next 40 years, the way students experience education in the classroom is poised for dramatic change. For example, new technology tools, innovations from the private sector, and approaches that leverage community engagement in education will help schools achieve better outcomes for students. This unique event will feature four speakers who are transforming education through their innovative ideas and organizations.

Event Details

Monday, April 16, 2012
6:30 PM
Google NYC Office
76 Ninth Avenue, 4th Floor  

Speakers

  • Charles Best, Founder & CEO, DonorsChoose.org
  • Greg Gunn, Entrepreneur in Residence at City Light and Co-Founder Wireless Generation
  • Sue Lehmann, Board Member of Harlem Children’s Zone, New Visions for Public Schools, Teach For America and SeaChange Capital Partners
  • Albert Wenger, Union Square Ventures 
  • Moderator, Mike O'Brien, CEO, iMentor

Proceeds support iMentor's programs.

iConnect events are special opportunities for mentors and supporters to become more involved in the iMentor community by meeting their peers and introducing friends and colleagues to the organization. Held several times a year, iConnect events offer a range of social activities as well as forums for learning and networking.

iMentor Wins Best Nonprofit to Work For Award

iMentor Posted on March 21, 2012 - 11:21am

iMentor was recently named one of 2011's Best Nonprofits to Work For by the Opportunity Knock’s People’s Choice Awards. We are proud to add this to our 2010 recognition by The Nonprofit Times as one of the 50 Best Nonprofits to Work For.

Opportunity Knocks selected winners from nominations and essays submitted by employees. “Opportunity Knocks celebrates the rewards of working in the nonprofit sector, by honoring those organizations who do it best,” says President and CEO Karen Beavor. “The enthusiasm of our nominators for their employers demonstrates how nonprofits can not only make a difference in the community but also have an incredibly positive impact on the lives of the people that work for them.

Our staff shares a commitment not just to our mission of helping more youth succeed in college but also to supporting one another as we work toward our goals. In fact, our recent hires tell us that the primary reason they came to the organization was the mission, as well as for professional development and growth opportunities. This is true for staff members across the organization, whether they’re working with our mentee-mentor pairs, supporting our development team, or leading operations. Our own staff satisfaction survey highlights some of the aspects that make iMentor a great place to work:

  • 90% feel their work enabled mentors and mentees to achieve high performance
  • 90% feel their coworkers work together well to achieve the organization’s goals
  • 92% of staff expressed that they have had opportunities to learn and grow at work

In recent months, our staff has participated in many events that exemplify our culture and commitment to professional development. Take Diversity Brown Bag, for example. January’s event explored topics of identity with a strengths-based perspective as it relates to our work at iMentor. We also held a “lunch and learn” session to get to know the work of our colleagues, learn about their career paths, and hear advice on building skills in their functional areas. And in February our in-house Team Fun hosted a fiercely competitive Trivia Night.

The Opportunity Knocks recognition is a welcome acknowledgment of something our staff already knows—iMentor is a great place to work.

Interested in being part of a work environment that is striving to be the best-in-sector for talent development? Check out our jobs page—we are adding roles at all levels across the organization.

Honoring Mentors and Mentees on International Women's Day

iMentor Posted on March 8, 2012 - 4:48pm

Today is International Women's Day, and iMentor is proud to recognize the hard work and achievements of the women who participate in our program. These women are building strong mentoring relationships that are helping the next generation of women succeed in college. Thanks to all the women who support each other through mentoring.

iMentor bake-off

This year, Renee has worked with her mentor, Carolyn, to improve her time management skills and overcome the temptation to procrastinate, especially during the college application process. Their hard work paid off--all of Renee’s applications were submitted on time, and she is eager to hear back from Spelman College, St. John’s University, and SUNY Binghampton.

iMentor bake-off

When Chanil was accepted to her dream college over the summer, the first person she called was her mentor, Celine. Through their mentoring relationship, Celine had helped Chanil study for her SATs and figure out her financial aid package. They keep in touch this year to talk about building good relationships with professors, balancing a tough course load, and making new friends in college.

iMentor bake-off

During Shineil’s senior year in high school, her mentor, Jeannette, supported her through many important milestones—completing college essays, applying for scholarships, and even shopping for her prom dress. This year as they continue their mentoring relationship, Jeannette is helping Shineil learn how to balance her classes at Lehman College with her part-time job.

iMentor and Paul Hastings LLP Partner to Keep Students on Track to College

iMentor Posted on March 6, 2012 - 11:48am

iMentor is excited to announce that with the financial support of Paul Hastings LLP, a leading international law firm, we have launched a new partnership with the Secondary School for Law (SSL) in Brooklyn. With this funding, iMentor is able to engage 82 juniors in transformative, three-year mentoring relationships that will continue through students’ freshman year in college to ensure they graduate from high school and successfully transition to college.

SSL is a law-themed school that serves students in grades 6-12. The high school integrates academic tutoring, mentoring, and college guidance to help students excel academically. Students also participate in mock trials throughout the year to increase their self-efficacy and develop skills related to a career in law, such as the ability to think critically about an issue, solve complex problems, and advocate for themselves and their communities.

iMentor’s partnership with SSL is in its first year, but Assistant Principal Felicia Holtzman has already noticed a difference in student behavior. “I do see positive changes in terms of the kids’ accountability and responsibility throughout the school day,” Holtzman said. “Being able to offer [our students] the opportunity to have someone who’s consistently there for them and who they’re corresponding with on a regular basis has been really great for them.”

Students at SSL have been working through iMentor’s College Success curriculum with their mentors via weekly emails and monthly activities since the fall. During the second half of this school year, mentors and mentees will create a college roadmap and financial action plan, identify and develop leadership qualities, and research summer internship and leadership opportunities.

Mentors at SSL come from a diversity of professional backgrounds and are able to share their education and career experiences with their mentees. Shary Sanchez, a mentor and an attorney with the nonprofit organization, HIV Law Project, has enjoyed the opportunity to be a mentor to Latoya who wants to be a lawyer in the future.“It’s been great for me because when I was younger, I wanted to be an attorney,” Sanchez said. “It just makes me feel good that I’m there for Latoya so that I can help and guide her through college and be there while she’s making the decision to go to law school, because I wish that I had someone there for me. It strengthens our relationship that we have that in common.”

iMentor is thrilled to be partnering with Paul Hastings LLP and SSL, and we look forward to continuing to support our pairs so that mentees will stay on track to graduate high school ready to succeed in college and life.

iMentor and 10 Leading Companies Announce Recruitment for 100 Mentor Pledge

iMentor Posted on February 27, 2012 - 10:49am

Today is International Corporate Philanthropy Day, an advocacy day to build awareness of corporate-community partnerships and further corporate engagement. Today, we are pleased to recognize the efforts of our 10 corporate partners in the 100 Mentor Pledge: Accenture, Barclays Capital, Bloomberg LP, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Ernst & Young LLP, Goldman Sachs, Marsh & McLennan Companies, Morgan Stanley, and UBS. In honor of the day, many of these companies will begin recruitment efforts to engage 100 of their employees each as volunteer mentors for high school students in the city’s low-income communities.

Last month in his State of the City address, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the commitment of these companies to our 100 Mentor Pledge. In his announcement, Mayor Bloomberg highlighted the partnership as a key initiative to help improve college and career readiness among the city’s students. “In recent weeks, many of our city’s leading corporate citizens have joined a mentoring program for high school students called iMentor,” said Mayor Bloomberg. He also called for more New York City companies to join the pledge and help students become college and career-ready, saying, “to the leaders of our hospitals, hotels, nonprofits and small businesses of every kind, including our growing tech community: join us in this new effort to connect high school students to career paths.”

Each volunteer from the partnering companies will be matched in a one-to-one mentoring partnership with a high school student that will last up to four years. Mentors and students work together through iMentor’s online and in-person curriculum to navigate the college application process and build critical skills linked to college success. Each of these volunteers will help us further our mission to ensure more high school students graduate high school college-ready and succeed in college.

Learn more or sign up to become a mentor at www.imentor.org/become-a-mentor.

Join Our Online Donor Drive

iMentor Posted on February 15, 2012 - 12:07pm

This week, we launched our annual Online Donor Drive—a “friendraising campaign” that raises awareness and funds to further iMentor’s mission. Each year, a dedicated group of mentors and supporters makes individual fundraising pages on Crowdrise and asks friends, family, and coworkers to give to this cause that means so much to them.

Our mentors are iMentor’s greatest champions, and the Donor Drive offers them an easy, fun, and competitive way to go beyond mentoring in their support. All you have to do is read the stories on their fundraising pages to see what motivates them—and their networks—to get involved.

Kate Pugh, a mentor to a high school senior, wrote on her page, “iMentor is a phenomenal program and I've seen firsthand the impact that it has on its students. The growth of iMentor is a powerful movement that is having a tremendously positive effect on our community. As such, I have sought to become involved beyond my role as a mentor.”

And Jay Cofresi, a long-time mentor who is mentoring his second student through the program, found a way to motivate his friends and family to support iMentor on his page: “I know there is never a good time to ask for money but please consider donating to iMentor. Come on...skip one meal out or a few drinks after work. That money could really make a difference for the students who participate in this great program.”

Our mentors are already having a lasting impact on the life of one student in one of New York’s low-income communities by helping them graduate high school college-ready and succeed in college. By participating in the Donor Drive, mentors are able to expand their impact to help thousands more. Funds raised through the Donor Drive—whether $10 or $1,000—will help support the more than 1,800 students iMentor will serve this year.

The Online Donor Drive really makes a difference. Last year, our Donor Drive team broke our online fundraising record and brought in more than $86,000 for iMentor’s programs. This year we aim to shatter that record, and with your help, raise over $125,000 to support mentor-mentee pairs in New York City.

You can join the team that is helping high school students in New York City build a bright future by making a page or donating to one today!

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