HSBC: Become a Mentor!

What Your Coworkers are Saying...

HSBC employees talk about participating with iMentor....

Hannah P. and Shaeetaa L.

Community involvement has always been a very important aspect of my life. iMentor has been a rewarding way for me to realize the enriching benefits of community involvement while maintaining a busy work schedule. The Core Curriculum of the program allows mentors and mentees to share their life experiences, ideals, and values. The curriculum also helps to develop the critical thinking and writing skills necessary for the mentee's matriculation into a higher learning institution. More than this, the program has allowed me to make a meaningful contribution to the life of a New York City teenager. I became a mentor in fall of 2005 and have truly enjoyed the relationship that I have developed with my mentee, Shaeetaa L., a rising junior at George Westinghouse High School. Through our frequent communication, I have come to learn about Shaeetaa's passions and life experiences. Shaeetaa and I also participate in the monthly First Wednesday event, an evening to relax and enjoy time with your mentee hosted at the iMentor office. Getting to know Shaeetaa has not only allowed me to appreciate the wonderful person that she is, but also has shown me that I am invested and making a difference in the life of a young person. For me, this is the true reward of community involvement and will stay with me for many years to come.

Bryan, mentor of two George Westinghouse students

iMentor... a chance to give back to the NYC community by connecting with a deserving teen via the Internet, organized project modules and face-to-face activities such as a Mets game, museum visits, Alvin Ailey Dance theater, bowling, pizza parties or just hanging out at the iMentor office. What's not to like about a volunteer program such as this?

I had the unique opportunity to serve as a mentor to two different teenagers over the 2003-04 and 2004-05 school years through HSBC's alliance with George Westinghouse High School in Brooklyn. Overall, I found the program to be both extremely rewarding and refreshingly manageable given the use of Internet as a mode of communication. All of us are extremely challenged for time and the iMentor program clearly recognizes this. In addition to e-mail messages, mentor/mentee pairs have numerous opportunities for face-to-face interaction via organized events on weekends or evenings after work during the school year. Through active
participation in both types of communication, mentors can clearly make a difference in a young person's life.

One of my best memories from participating in i-Mentor involved an
volunteer environmental project (in Ft Greene Park Brooklyn) organized as part of the HSBC Earthwatch Fellowship program. Through the help of several HSBC volunteers, we teamed up with the NYC Parks Department and iMentor to organize and implement an event that empowered mentor/mentee pairs to give back to their local community. It was an incredible day of fun and hard work that really made a positive impact on Ft. Greene Park. The fact that more than a dozen mentor/mentee pairs sacrificed a springtime Saturday to work on the project testifies to the attitude and general mind-set of the individuals involved in iMentor.

I would highly recommend the i-Mentor program to my HSBC colleagues as an exceptional and highly-valued way to give of your time, knowledge and experience to deserving teens in an underserved NYC Metro area. It's a fantastic way to meet some lasting friends, to explore some of the sights and sounds of NYC and, most importantly, to really connect with a young person in our community.