Mentoring Program – Ten Steps
The International Institute for Advanced Instruction (TIIAI) ten week Mentoring Program will provide students with innovative approaches to mentoring concepts during Saturday seminars. The students create an Individual Advancement Plan. They will select careers of interest and research requirements. They will establish mentoring relationships with mentors for future projects. The program strongly encourages thought provoking analysis of how the students can make choices that will serve them for a lifetime. Students will have workshops on the following…
1. Being Educationally Prepared –the participants develop an Individual Advancement Plan for mapping out their educational and personal goals, from 6 months up to 5 years. The purpose is to bring attention to the importance of having a plan, a road map to guide and direct their activities to identify their present and future endeavors. The overall objective is to prevent the decision to drop out of school. The goal is to present the importance of education and having a plan to achieve your goals.
2. Leading by Example – is a socially responsible approach to their daily activities. The participants are provided with methods and concepts that offer a glimpse of how they respond and interact daily. Activity – Participants gather unknown information concerning family members and connect it to how they are currently viewing their own lives and what examples do they have in their family. The goal is to unveil our personal responsibility to match our words with our deeds and to identify family influence.
3. Sharing Your Inner Thoughts – the participants are offered an opportunity to share with the group or one-on-one an event that they have never shared with others. They also discuss their hopes and dreams. In addition, they have a venue to ask “wondering” questions. I was wondering…. ? The goal is to release negative thoughts they might hinder their personal progress and to strengthen their public speaking skills. Activity – Me Bag – students design their bags and bring them back the next week with 4 or more items they can use to describe themselves, including, where they are and possibly where they would like to be.
4. Purposeful Writing – offers the possibility for the participants to express their life goals and experiences in a private setting. Journaling strengthens writing skills and formulates the consistent practice for writing. The presentation for journaling is based on writing short stories. The goal is to foster the desirer to write and to write for a purpose.
5. Keeping Your Word – participants delve deeper into what it takes to keep your word, a promise and to develop the awareness to speak with caution. One is unable to retrieve spoken words. The goal is to expose the power of words and that they should be presented with great care for we are responsible for our spoken words.
6. Developing and Maintaining Standards and Principles – if we do not stand for something we will fall for anything. The participants actually identify and develop the standards they have in place and which ones are they willing to maintain. Activity – Neighborhood Walk – students visit the neighborhood and view it as if they were visitors. Questions to answer: 1) Is it clean? 2) Are people employed? 3) How many stores? 4) How many have a wide variety of fresh fruits and veggies? 5) How many vegetable gardens are there? 6) Are there any health food stores? If not, why? 7) Is recycling encouraged? The goal is to identify the standards and how they can be utilized in the navigation of their life choices.
7. Philosophical Discussions on “The Why of Life” – philosophy or philosophical discussions is a missing component in today’s educational system. Philosophy is abstract but yet concrete when one can agree upon a concept. Discussions can include “issues of existence”, the pragmatic approach, correspondence-test and the coherence-test. In reality they do some of these test without knowing they are doing it. This form of thinking is not a part of the classroom instruction. The goal is to expose the students to analytical thinking within the context of their life experiences.
8. Life Skills (eating healthy and being a wise consumer) – participants receive information on the concept that if individuals are given a wide range of healthy choices and the understanding of the purpose of their choices, they will continue to make and be aware of healthy eating in their daily lives. Maintaining an awareness of the benefits of healthy choices and good consumerism will provide an avenue for individuals to make education choices. Activity – Veggie Week – participants keep 3×5 cards on all of the meals they eat each day and what purchases they make for the week. The goal is for the participants to have a “birds-eye view” of their consumer habits.
9. Social Responsibility – encompasses so many aspects of the larger society. Participants are seeking to have the understanding that “it takes a village” to build a community. Also, knowing the value of networking within their community and respecting the objectives of the neighborhood. The goal is to connect this concept to developing and maintaining standards and principles.
10. Vocational or College Readiness – participants in their Individual Advancement Plan with map out and research their areas of interest. They will develop a cover letter, a Resume, an essay for their college application and complete a job application. In addition, they will receive basic financial literacy information including understanding college loan system. The goal is exposure to key areas for the advancement of their goals.
The International Institute for Advanced Instruction (TIIAI) 