Listen: As we've heard this week, mentorship in action can mean a lot of things -- tutoring, passing along experience, professional support, and sometimes, a field trip to the Renaissance Faire.
I love the way this piece came together. A few weeks before the Make A Difference campaign, we put out an appeal in our newsletter for listeners who volunteer in the community to share their stories with us. The first response we received was from BJ Ermenc, who happens to work just down the hall from me in the MPS Administration building. We exchanged 2 rapid e-mails and within 5 minutes we were face to face, discussing about her experiences with YMCA's Sponsor A Scholar program.
Last summer, I followed Sponsor A Scholar alum Terry Anzueto after he graduated from Riverside University High School in our series called The First Summer Of The Rest Of Your Life ( part one, part two, part three). This time around, I wanted to approach Sponsor A Scholar from a fresh, creative perspective -- fortunately for me, BJ and Jackie had already done most of the legwork.
After a recent trip to the Renaissance Faire, they both partook in a creative project, writing down reflections of the day from their individual points of view. So, they came into the studios, read their pieces for me, and I mashed their perspectives together with a few sound effects (scroll to the bottom for the audio piece).
To learn more about the YMCA's Mentoring efforts, check out this page. And they're certainly in need of mentors for both Sponsor A Scholar as well as their One on One program -- sign up today!
Produced by: Adam Carr