Karyl Shand
Aerospace Engineering undergraduate
Pioneer High Mentoring
Program
A common recruiting tool for Reach Out! is friends latching
onto friends. Karyl came to Reach Out! through her friendship
with Alicia. Over time, Karyl has evolved from a volunteer mentor to
our UM mentor coordinator at Pioneer High School. She oversees
recruiting, matching, ongoing support and orientation for mentors;
interacts with teachers and parents; and of course, touches base with
the children being served. In 1995-96, about 70 tutors worked with
more than 100 teens; in 1996-97 there were 121 mentors with over 130
teens; and from fall 1997 through fall 1998, 197 mentors worked with
216 teens from Pioneer. Reach Out! now has its own office,
staffed by a parent coordinator, at Pioneer High in the counseling
area. This shows true stakeholder development and is no small
feat!
Karyl has worked with CUOS outreach staff to establish a model
database and evaluation/assessment system for the program. She hopes
to share this model with other colleges or universities that would
like to offer such long-term school-based mentoring for teens. She
developed and provided orientations for mentors this year and has
learned from the many roadblocks what it takes to persevere and to
make such a program a reality. She has dealt with mentors not showing
up, students not showing up, students wanting to con mentors into
doing their homework, parents being angry about their children not
seeing improvements in grades or not being matched as soon as they
want, teachers who are at a loss for how to help a teen, and coaches
who want their entire teams mentored. Karyl is also hoping to work
with a few teachers to integrate study groups into their classrooms.
She recognizes that few teens know how to come together to study and
it is a key to the success of many university students! Mechanical
Engineering Professor Bill Schultz is piloting a study group with her
at Pioneer this fall.
Karyl is now working on ways to promote career exploration for
children via their mentors and the office at the school. She is
working with the school's counselors and career center coordinator.
We know that teens need to see a reason to take on and do well in
math and science classes. CUOS was able to provide a computer which
is now on line at the school's Reach Out! office. Together,
Karyl and her team hope to provide career awareness opportunities for
students, field trips, and job shadowing experiences.
As mentors expressed concerns on how to help their children with
personal concerns from dating to eating disorders, she worked with
the principal and parent coordinator to create a resource directory
list and mentor Web site, which
now includes on-line tutorial and study skill links, as well as
career and college planning directories.
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