Mentors invest in Rochester's human future
Apr. 27—ROCHESTER — It takes a village.
That was the experience Osayaba Ayinla learned growing up in Nigeria.
What youth development looks like in Nigeria is pretty much community centered," Ayinla said. That means getting consistent lessons from everyone from your mom to your uncle to your sister and neighbor. "So as soon as I came to United States, and even in Minnesota, that was what I was envisioning youth development to look like."
That, he said, led him to Boys and Girls Club of Rochester. "This this looks like the most stable village in Rochester."
Ayinla serves as a mentor to teens at the Boys and Girls Club. As someone working on a master's degree in social work, he said he sees the importance of mentoring kids, giving them the tools to succeed once they stop being kids and move into adulthood.
Open from after school to 8 p.m. each night, the Boys and Girls Club, Ayinla said, is like a second family and a safe environment for teens. They get homework help, lessons in leadership, life skills, healthy living and the arts, and the kids learn about job skills and how to handle finances.
The club also offers some basic necessities such as snacks, clothing, hygeine supplies and, simply, a place to relax and have some fun.
Judy Alyami, a 14-year-old Willow Creek student, said she loves playing pool. But it's the homework help and the adult guidance that really matter.
"Mostly the staff," Judy said, when after admitting to being a bit of a pool shark. "I feel can tell them anything without worrying that they're going to tell anyone else."
Rhonda Thompson, another of the mentors — Ayinla calls her "Mama Rhonda" — said a big part of that is just listening to teens like Judy without judging them. That can be anywhere from their personal life to school life and more.
"(English) being her second language, it can be hard doing homework in your second language," Thompson said. "She says sometimes (at school) she gets treated differently. They don't always understand the difficulties she's having. But she's very intelligent.
Judy moved back to Rochester from Saudi Arabia this past fall. Five years ago, she moved back to Saudi Arabia with her family after living in Rochester for nearly two years. She and two of her sisters attend Boys and Girls Club after school, and her older sisters were "Club Kids" as well, but both are adults now.
Anthony Nguyen has had mentors in his life for years. So, when Community School Site Coordinator Sweta Patel recommended a mentoring program, he was all in.
Patel introduced Nguyen to STRIVE, a mentorship program operated by the Rotary Club of Rochester.
Nguyen, a senior at the Alternative Learning Center, said, "Miss Patel, she reached out to me about it. And I was like, huh, sounds cool. Sounds chill."
A promise of scholarship money if he completed the program was enticing, Nguyen said. "Then as I kept on going, I like start to enjoy the company and that kind of stuff. And it really opened up. And that's why I haven't missed a single day."
Mike Becker, the program team lead for STRIVE — which stands for Students Taking Renewed interest in the Value of Education — said the STRIVE has been operating in Rochester since 1999, and currently has chapters at the ALC and John Marshall High School.
The program focuses on students who are in jeopardy of not graduating and has mentors work with them. Becker said it's not through homework help or tutoring, but by just being another adult in their lives.
"We're giving them an opportunity to talk on the same level with an adult who has no judgment, who isn't playing a parental role," Becker said.
That doesn't mean they don't talk about the students' progress at school or that there aren't lessons. STRIVE teaches youths about topics that are important once they finish high school and become adults. The group holds lessons on nutrition, credit, home finances and other like skill.
"Whenever we meet, we talk about where you are in your studies," Becker said. "The ultimate goal is to make sure they have enough credits to graduate. Also talking about what happens the day you're no longer a HS student. College, careers and finances.
Becker said while STRIVE meetings are once a month at JM and twice monthly at the ALC, from the start of the school year to the end, when the seniors are ready to graduate increases "twenty-fold."
All with the focus of not just graduating but being successful afterward.
"We tell them, you're responsible from the day you leave here," Becker said. "We try to prepare them for the day they walk out of RPS."
Patel said her pitch to kids to join STRIVE is to tell them about how they will gain skills they need as adults, but also emphasize the relationships they will build with mentors.
And the program is a success. Patel said nearly all the seniors — all students in the program are in their senior year — graduate within that school year, and the few who don't generally graduate by the following fall. This is among kids at the ALC who were on the cusp of not graduating.
For these kids, it's important to have an extra person in their lives who shows they care. "I think it's having one more role model in their life," she said. "Somebody who's asking them questions about what's what's going on, how school going. Just one more adult in their life that shows care for them, I think, is the greatest benefit."
At the Boys & Girls Club, Ted O'Brien mentors between 15 and 25 fourth- and fifth-graders who arrive when the school day is done.
O'Brien is a mix of teacher and mentor.
"They're getting a lot of emotional support as well as they're getting support in their educational studies," O'Brien said. "There's a lot of homework help going on."
The Boys & Girls Club, he said, is unlike other child care programs. The kids — Club Kids — get a lot of structure from their mentors. Mentors follow up on scholastic progress, provide emotional support and help kids do everything from burn off a little energy to find a way to channel their talents.
"I've worked with kids for eight years," O'Brien said. "And this is by far the most beneficial that I've seen in my eight years of teaching."
STRIVE has about 20 students between its two campus chapters. The Boys & Girls Club has about 120 kids enrolled at its K-12 Center Street location and another 32 at its location at Longfellow Elementary School. And those are just two of several organizations that are mentoring kids who are high school seniors or younger.
After the closure of the Rochester Area YMCA, Andre Crockett saw a
need for a sports-related program
and brought Sports Mentorship Academy to Rochester. The organization helps students using homework help, sports and service to others as a model for mentoring kids.
Founded in the Twin Cities in 1993, Bolder Options came to Rochester in 2010. President and CEO Darrell Thompson — a John Marshall alum and former Gophers and Packers running back — said the organization focuses on "young ladies or young men ages 10 to 14."
In Rochester, Bolder Options helps about 30 kids, most referred to the organization from a social worker or a school counselor. Kids come from all backgrounds, he said, but generally something in their household points to the need of a positive adult role model.
"Rochester is a phenomenal community," Thompson said.
The organizaiton is supported by a variety of businesses including IBM, Mayo Clinic and running and biking clubs. Thompson said mentors and mentees might go for a run together, attend a Bolder Options event, go geocaching.
"We introduce them to a healthy lifestyle," Thompson said. "We do set an academic goal, opening our facilities for homework time."
The time and effort with students matters. On average, Thompson said, "Their (GPAs) go up one point when they are involved in our program."
Thompson added that Bolder Options tries to get the whole family to come to events and be involved in the program. Meanwhile, mentors and mentees meet about 50 times a year, which builds a strong relationship, so much so that 90 percent of matches maintain their relationship after that year.
Like with Bolder Options, Andrea Chapman, director of resource development at Boys & Girls Club, said school counselors and social workers are a primary source of referrals. But Ayinla added that the program breeds its own success as Club Kids who participate and even graduate out of the program often tell other children to join.
But no matter which program a child uses, those kids see the benefit in their lives.
Nguyen said that having immigrated from Vietnam, his mother taught him how to act in Vietnamese society. That didn't work so well here in America. When he used to go to the YMCA, a family friend — Bob Hubert — served as his mentor.
"In Vietnam, my mom didn't really have to worry about manners and a lot of that kind of stuff," Nguyen said. "So I learned how to say sorry, and thank you for the things that I got from my mentor. He taught me all about manners, how to respect people, how to talk to people."
His fellow STRIVE and ALC student Elizabeth Doty is paired with Don Fell, who spent his career working with teens as a social worker.
Doty said she appreciates learning from Fell because his life is different from that of other adults in her life.
"It's refreshing to get it from another human who's not a part of the family and the same habits and the same rituals and traditions," Doty said. "It's nice to hear it from another — not entirely stranger — person that just isn't in the same world that you're in. "Like it helps you realize that there's more to do ... because hearing about all that he's done and all that other mentors have done, it's like, people do a lot more than I thought they did."
If you're looking to impart some life lessons on a kid who needs an added adult in his or her life, Rochester is home to a variety of nonprofit agencies that focus on that specific need in the community.
From the daily needs at the Boys and Girls Club to more periodic interactions through STRIVE, finding an agency that fits your skill set should be easy.
Location: Mt. Olive Lutheran Church, 2830 18th Ave. NW.
Mission: Provides wellness-based mentoring for middle school youth.
Contact:
or 507-269-4799.
Location: 1026 E. Center St., Rochester; and Longfellow Elementary School, 2435 E. 20th St. SE, Rochester.
Mission: Serves children grades K-12 with a variety of programs that focus on learning, leadership, life skills, the arts and more.
Contact:
or 507-287-2300.
Location: 930 40th St. NW, Suite 120, and RCTC office at 851 30th Ave. SE.
Mission: Provides hope, connections and support to youth and young adults who have faced multiple barriers, allowing them to transform their lives and become contributing members of our community.
Contact:
or 507-254-3387.
Location: Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, 200 First St. SW.
Mission: To help Black and underrepresented students transform themselves from youth with potential into competitive and empowered talent entering the workforce by providing students with educational and leadership skills, training, and long-term mentoring for successful careers in health care, science and beyond.
Contact:
college.mayo.edu/academics/diversity-and-inclusion/programs/rise-for-youth-program.
Location: 920 40th St. NW.
Mission: A mentoring program located in Rochester and Winona for male students with untapped potential designed to prevent delinquency and academic failure.
Contact:
Location: Meets at John Marshall High School and the Alternative Learning Center.
Mission: A program for high school seniors who have faced some academic challenges but want to make the most of their last year of high school.
Contact:
portal.clubrunner.ca/11826.
