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Dear
Cedrick,
Welcome
to our first ever Meritus Mentor AND Mentee Newsletter!
In this issue you will find tips on
enriching your Mentor and Mentee relationships, dates for events we
have planned this year, and don't forget to check out what the
academia is saying about mentoring relationships in the Research
section.
We are especially happy to introduce you to Christian Rummell,
incoming Mentor Program Manager. Ana Moraga is leaving Meritus this
month to start law school at Northeastern University. Although we are
sad to see her leave, we are proud of her accomplishments and it is
with great pleasure that we welcome Christian to the Mentor Program.
Christian, who is completing his doctorate at Portland State
University, has written extensively on mentoring with immigrant as
well as gay youth. He has more than 15 years of experience in
the mentoring field. We have dedicated a section about his background
and expertise. Feel free to get to know Christian by reading
more about him. Be sure to update him on your mentor and mentee
relationship via email, phone or in-person.
Enjoy what is left of the summmer
and as always, thank you for all you do in support of Meritus
Scholars,
Ana Moraga and Christian Rummell
Outgoing and Incoming Mentor Program Managers
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Save the Dates
Mentor
Training Day:
Thursday,
October 13th, 2011; 6-7pm
Location: Caspian Room at the Meritus Office in the Presidio,
1012 Torney Avenue, San Francisco 94129
Winter Service Day + Winter
Holiday Party:
Saturday, December 17th; 9am-2pm
Location: San Francisco Food Bank, 900 Pennsylvania Ave, San
Francisco, CA 94107 (starting at 9am)
Mentor and Mentee Reports Due: Tuesday,
November 1st, 2011
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Christian Rummell
Incoming Mentor Program Manager
Prior
to joining Meritus, Christian was Director of Mentoring Support
Services with MENTOR and a Training and Technical Assistant Associate
with the National Mentoring Center at Education Northwest. Christian
also coordinated the AmeriCorps Program with the "I Have a
Dream" Foundation. He comes to Meritus with 15 years of
experience working with mentoring programs.
Christian
holds a Master of Public Administration from Portland State
University and a B.A. in Psychology from Washington College. He is
currently writing his dissertation on mentoring
for a Doctorate in Educational Leadership at Portland
State University.
Chistian lives in
the Upper Haight, enjoys traveling, biking
through Golden Gate Park, and exploring restaurants in the Bay
Area.
Welcome
to the Meritus Community, Christian!
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Mentoring
Tips-Making the Transition into a New Academic Year
School is starting soon, and life is about to quickly
change. The next few months will probably be pretty intense. While a lot
of things may be going on, don't forget that your mentoring
relationship can be a great support. This newsletter highlights some
strategic ways to stay connected as the new academic year begins.
Benefit from Staying Connected
One of the easiest and most important things you can do to
benefit from your mentoring relationship is to stay in touch. There are
a lot of ways you can stay connected with each other. Many of them
require just a few seconds. For example, it only takes...
60
seconds to send a text message.
120
seconds to connect via Facebook
300
seconds for a phone call
1200 seconds for coffee
3600
seconds for lunch
Taking a few seconds out of your schedule to offer a few
words of encouragement or to ask for support can really make a big
difference.
Campus Tours
If you are a scholar going off to college, there is still
time to walk around campus and get familiar with your new surroundings.
Make your campus visit even more interesting. Bring along your mentor
and do something different-like a scavenger hunt.
Here are some ideas for things to look for/do while you
are exploring campus:
- Map out where each of your
classes will be during your first week of school.
- Measure the time it takes to
"walk briskly" from the bus stop to your earliest class
for those mornings that your alarm doesn't go off on time.
- Save yourself some money. Find
used books for each of your classes in the bookstore. Price them
out and compare them to the cost of books from different online
stores.
- Locate one quiet place to study
on campus and one quiet place to study near campus.
- Print (or cut out) coupons for
different restaurants on or near campus.
- Find somewhere to get coffee or
tea.
- Look up the hours of the
gym/fitness center.
- Figure out the contact
information for a financial aid officer (name, email, physical
office location).
- Find two different computer lab
locations. Learn how busy they are and how many pages you can
print for free during each semester.
- Talk about three things that you
are looking forward to during the new school year and one thing
you are worried about.
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Research
What are the benefits of mentoring for college students? A
2011 Research to Practice Brief from the Pathways to College
Network, the Institute for High Education Policy, and the National
College Access Network offers a few clues.
This brief summarizes the latest research and describes
different ways that mentoring may offer support to college-going
students as well as those already on campus. Some of the findings in
this brief include the ways that mentoring supports academics, retention,
motivation, and skills necessary to succeed in different professional
settings.
To read The Role of Mentoring in College Access and
Success and learn more about the ways that your mentoring relationships
position you for achievement, follow this link: http://www.ihep.org/publications/publications-detail.cfm?id=144
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Program
Changes
Since our last Newsletter, there have been several changes to the Program.
Thank you for bearing with us through these transitional months.
- We
launched our first set of Career Mentor Matches and workshops
last winter.
- The
2011 Class was the first Meritus class to apply to the Mentor
Program as Mentees and to pick their mentor from a list of
Mentor Biographies
- In June
we had our first Mentor and Mentee Training
- Beginning
in the Fall, the quarterly reports will
be replaced by semester reports from both Mentors and Mentees.
Look
out for future changes and if you have any questions please do not
hesitate to contact us.
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Mentors and
Mentees at our
Summer Service Day
We
worked with the Food Bank packaging over 3,000 pounds of pinto beans
to stop hunger in our City.
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About Us
Meritus College
Fund invests in socio-economically disadvantaged, yet high-potential, San
Francisco public high school students by providing four-year
scholarships and individualized support to help them realize their
potential through a college degree.
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