Alphonso (Al) and Olaydoyin (Ola)

About Their Match

Ola and Al were matched at the beginning of Ola’s junior year of high school, and are taking part in a two year match. Because Ola’s school is so focused on the college admission process, Al became a valuable resource for Ola during his preparation in planning for college. Al helped Ola gain admission to a prestigious summer program at Carnegie Mellon University the summer after his junior year, and helped Ola revise his college essays. The pair is also part of a college preparatory program through iMentor, which utilizes curriculum aimed at readying students for university life, academic challenges, and the college and financial aid application process. Overall, the pair has bonded over several issues including politics, social responsibility, education, business and future careers.

Impact of Their Match

Consistency is a huge part of this pair’s success. Over 1 ½ years, the pair has only missed a handful of emails combined, and often they email more than once per week. Al is very supportive of Ola and his goals and in his email responses he utilizes the prompts to build an ongoing conversation, while offering advice and positivity. Ola has improved his time management skills since the beginning of the pair’s match and per Al’s advice he now uses an electronic calendar, alarms and reminders to ensure that he is on time and prepared for events, class andappointments. More personally, Ola even regarded Al as a second father figure in one email, recognizing the impact that his mentor has had on his life. Ola says that Al often “checks up” on him and says that they have “great talks” and that he gives “good advice”. The pair often references the future and their friendship in emails, and are very encouraging of one another overall. Coming in to the program, Al says that Ola was pretty organized, well focused, and knew what he wanted to do, and that he just needed the proper guidance in achieving his goals. He says, “Ola gets that same guidance from home, but it’s important to have it reinforced by someone without a biased interest in his life decisions.” Al acts as an additional support system for Ola and feels that it’s “important for kids to have that full ring of support, and to gain life experiences.” Ola has also given Al perspective on teenage life. Also a parent of a teenager, Al finds that Ola has impacted the way he approaches his own son about typical teenage issues, and equally he has given Ola a new perspective on how to address his family members and friends.

Email Exchange

Below is an email exchange between Al and Ola about the election of President Barack Obama, and their reactions to his upcoming (at the time) inauguration:

OLA WROTE:

Sup Al,

In regards to the prompt, The 2008 Presidential Election attracted millions of young voters of a new generation who until this present election, had not thought about getting involved in real change. Audacity of Hope – the theme in which Obama ran his campaign by is what I believe have earned him the position he is to be honored in a few days. Since March, I knew Obama would win because not only is he a people’s person but also he is the embodiment of how we would want a president to be. But truly, I was in shock on November 4, 2008 when CNN announced him as the presumptive president-elect of the United States, it was a great feeling; I was not only happy he is the first African American president but also because he fought for what he believes in, a man of character –throughout the campaign, Obama was patient, cool, calm and collected. Despite his opponent’s insulting comments, lashing videos of him,Obama upheld his integrity at all times. And that in its entity helped him in winning the presidency. His presidency is of no surprise to me, it was coherent that he would win; he was ahead by so many delegates.The most important issues to me are education and economy; those two aspect of America needs several reconstruction. It is unfortunate that the American system of education is not resulting in his graduating class in all levels of education, especially high schools. The school system is failing; fault is to all, especially the government. Despite the fact that I could not vote, I wanted to be a part of this change,so I decided to volunteer for the Barack Obama campaign in New York. As a volunteer, I did phone banking, which involved calling potential Barack Obama supporters, informing them of volunteer opportunities,registration sites around their area and confirming their vote for Obama.

Barack Obama’s personality is one to emulate. With the grace of God, he has been able to manage success with humility. He has been able to gather a diverse group people in his quest to bring about change. Fortunately for me, I am one of those proud people. Volunteering made me more proficient in various areas of my life, especially my social life; it helped me build confidence, become more persuasive and learn patience. These are all characteristics of a leader, like Obama, whom I have come to emulate. My volunteer work has made me more sociable when interacting with people. At the campaign site downtown, I worked with people from different backgrounds and cultures; we had all came together for one cause – to bring about change. I was happy to be around these people and glad to know we were all taking the necessary action. From then on, I built confidence when talking to voters on the phone and even campaigning on the streets of New York. This confidence was also extended to my life in school. As a result of my experienceswith the Obama campaign, I make better judgments, speak more in front of groups and I am able to better express my opinions and ideas. I learned a great deal about patience while phone-banking during the Texas Primary. Over the weekend prior to the Primary, my site dedicated a day to calling the homes of voters in Texas. The majority of them were Republicans; some were very disrespectful and even went as far as hanging up the phone on me. Through all this, I learned tohave patience and at times I was able to convince them to consider Barack Obama as their candidate by introducing to them some of his policies. The first step to bringing about change is to believe in it and have that audacity to hope. As people nowadays are so discouraged with the times, I have been inspired to motivate and inspire people to show them that if Barack Obama can achieve this much at a young age, so can we. I made a small contribution to Barack Obama being elected the first African American President of the United States. Volunteering as taught me life skills that I can continually use for the rest of my life. Everyone at my school were excited, to be a part of the generation that witnessed this great historic moment. My family member were also excited, we have people calling from Nigeria and British. The whole world was happy. 

Millions of people have so many idea of how to better the world, but  only few take the necessary step to making those ideas a reality. In Barack Obama's book, Audacity of Hope, he expressed his thoughts on reclaiming the American dream which he believed can be done by changing the flawed government system. Having written that, he ran for president and after several campaigns, debates he is now the president-elect of the United States, he ran to actualize his thoughts, his goals. Through my volunteer work, I have partaken in helping Obama bringing about this change. I fearlessly believe if Barack Obama can lead a diverse group of people this far with the intention of restoring America to its former glory, so can I. That strong theme of 'change' that I have held onto throughout the campaign propels me to want to help Africa in the area of technological advancement. The characteristics of Obama I have come to emulate will be useful when making my own thoughts and goals a reality. I am looking forward to the inauguration and your thoughts about the presidency.

Talk to you later.

Ola

AL WROTE:

Ola,

Your response to the prompt about the 2008 Presidential Election was amazing to read. It took me through the trials and tribulations Obama had to endure. It was well written and had great organization. Overall it was GREAT piece of work to read. In regards to Obama becoming our 44th President, I do not think I will feel such exuberance again in my life time. I have spoken to elders and they describe this moment as being similar to when J.F.K was elected. Although they knew change was needed and hoped it would come. I believe they felt the same way you did on November 4, in total shock. Guess what though, the shock eventually disappeared and the time for change is here. I understand why you pointed out education and the economy as two aspects America needs to reconstruct in order to move forward but I think there is a third which should be added also. This addition would have to be Health Care. This was one of the premier issues Obama spoke about during his campaign. He really wants to make a push into E-prescribing. E-Prescribing is taking prescriptions and making themelectronic, just in case you did not know. As for the issue of education, I agree, it needs to be changed. I think the book Rethinking America is a must-read by anyone looking to change the education system. In essence, the book explains how we are taught from a young age to work, take tests and solve problems alone, but as we going to the work arena the demand is to work and solve problems together. Essentially, we negate over eighteen plus years of education in a much shorter time. If you think this is interesting, wait until you read the book. With regards to the economy, there are many issues plaguing our economy today and for me to mention them all or try to go into great detail on them, this would turn out to be a book instead of a response to you. So inevitably, you have pointed out great points that President Obama has to address and WE THE PEOPLE elected him to do just that.  

You know I voted, but it was not only the votes that helped President Obama become elected. It was everyone who helped him with all aspects of the election. That being said, you should understand that you helped him also. You were an important part of his team. Just think of team trying to accomplish a common goal without everyone doing their part: It cannot. In the case of the president, without people such as you, he might not have been so successful. You were part of change and now you will have a wonderful story to tell your children, grandchildren, etc. I am really proud of you for volunteering as well as happy you were able to learn something at the same time. I believe you give when you get. You gave your time and gathered knowledge and patience. I give my time and have gained a mentee as well as the beginning to a long lasting friendship. As I said earlier, this was a great topic to speak about and your feelings are pretty much the same as mine. I was filled with mixed emotions when everything happened and I am still filled with them about what is to come. All I can honestly say is now when I look into my children's eyes or even yours, I can say proudly with confidence YOU CAN BE WHAT EVER YOU WANT TO BE IF YOU WORK HARD AT IT - EVEN THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. Wow that felt good.

Until we speak again, Al