Kristina Alvarez has been a student mentor at Pittsburgh King through Point Park University a year. As a result of her experiences mentoring children in Pittsburgh public schools, Alvarez decided these experiences needed to be open to and shared with the rest of the university community, so she began the process of founding an on-campus Mentoring Club.
Chelsea Smith joined “Strong Women Strong Girls” to make a change in the lives of young females in the Pittsburgh public school district. At the end of this semester, Smith joined the new Mentoring Club to continue this endeavor.
While Alvarez and Smith are two of many student mentors working in programs offered at the university, Alvarez realized few people knew about the mentoring opportunities available to students. Having just been recognized by the United Student Government (USG) as a club two weeks ago, the Mentoring Club’s members are pushing to recruit more student mentors for the 2010-2011 school year.
Molly McClelland, the student support specialist for the Point Park University School of Arts and Sciences and faculty adviser to the Mentoring Club, brought the mentoring program “Two Hours to Change” to Point Park three years ago. The program works in conjunction with Pittsburgh King, an elementary and middle school in the Pittsburgh Public school district.
“I had been student-teaching at the time, and was doing some observations at King, and [I felt] God speaking to me saying this is the place that needs help,” McClelland said. “So I asked the principal what we could do, and she said what these kids really need are some positive role models – it’s really lacking in their neighborhood.”
All of the mentoring programs offered at Point Park focus on providing these positive role models to King students.
Two separate programs exist under the umbrella program “Two Hours to Change”: “I Am,” which was started this year and teaches basic character values, such as respect, to fifth graders at King, and “Next,” which will be launched next year. According to McClelland, “Next” will “hone in on who the student leaders are in the school community and [help them] develop leadership skills relative to positive choices and behavior.”
Point Park also has “Champions of Character,” an athletics-based mentoring program, “College Now,” which focuses on preparing high school students for college, and “Strong Women Strong Girls,” which is geared toward developing strong character in female students. All of the programs receive grant funding from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED), Highmark and the Grable Foundation.
The Mentoring Club Alvarez is starting on campus would house all of these programs, with each program having its own leaders and officers.
“We definitely want to make sure each program keeps their own identity, to be housed under the Mentoring Club to create a supportive group and a safety net so nobody gets lost,” Alvarez, a sophomore photojournalism and digital media major, said.
Alvarez, who is the event planning coordinator for “Strong Women Strong Girls” and will be the chief officer in contact with USG for the Mentoring Club, has been pushing to be a USG-recognized club since the beginning of January.
“I saw ‘Strong Women Strong Girls’ struggling to get our voice out there with our events, so I figured if we had a club integrated on campus and getting the word out there and getting the budget from USG, it would be better,” Alvarez said.
With only two weeks at the end of the semester to set up elections for club officers, Alvarez has been looking members and students willing to hold positions within the club so it can begin functioning as soon as the fall semester starts.
Alvarez chose to start the Mentoring Club separate from the pre-existing Community Service Club because, she said, it offers a different kind of community service.
“We’re here to make personal connections,” Alvarez said. “Our initiative is to reach the youth of Pittsburgh.”
McClelland agreed.
“This isn’t a river clean-up,” McClelland said. “It’s a certain skill and it’s a certain passion that you have to devote. It’s very different.”
Chelsea Smith, a sport, arts and entertainment management major, is currently involved with “Strong Women Strong Girls” and will be joining the Mentoring Club. Smith said the personal connections made with the King students is what makes the work as a mentor worth it.
“I’ve had a little girl, who was blond, tall and lanky, draw me a picture, and she said, ‘I just wanted you to know that when I grow up, I want to be just like you.’ And at that moment, my heart was just breaking but so full at the same time, because I’m just me, I’m no one important, but to her I was the world,” Smith said at the mentoring club’s first meeting on April 15.
The mentoring programs have held many on-campus activities with the King students throughout the year, including etiquette dinners and baseball games.
“So many of these kids have never sat down to a meal where they have had to use a fork and a knife, so [we are] just teaching them the basic skills that will allow them access to other opportunities,” McClelland said. “That’s why we like to have them at Point Park, because all of those are a build-up to your ability to achieve and your ability to get into Point Park, or any college of your dreams, and make it happen.”
Starting in the fall, the mentoring programs will also be offered as a credited course in the School of Arts and Sciences.
“We [wouldn’t] be meeting in a formal way, but the expectation would be that everyone would be trained, have their clearances and maintain the weekly 2-hour commitment,” McClelland said.
Alvarez and McClelland wanted to assure that all students would have a place in the Mentoring Club – even students who prefer to work behind the scenes and do not necessarily wish to mentor a child.
“Not everyone is inclined to work with kids. People have fears or reservations, and that is certainly something we can be understanding of,” McClelland said. “The most important thing is commitment – you have to have a commitment to mentoring and the power of mentoring.”
“If a student doesn’t want to be a mentor, they could be on committee…[to] help us with events, help us with fundraising, help us put together budget plans,” Alvarez said. “They don’t necessarily have to be a mentor.”
The Mentoring Club is open to all who wish to join with the only requirements being good academic standing, membership in one of the campus mentoring programs and having the required criminal background, child abuse and FBI clearances. Those interested in joining or holding a leadership position should contact Alvarez at kralvar@pointpark.edu or McClelland at mmclelland@pointpark.edu.
“We wanted to offer an opportunity for all Point Park students to serve the community in a time frame that was doable, understanding that college students have a ton of commitments,” McClelland said. “You can donate two hours of your time to change a life.”
*Published in 2010 Issue 13 of The Globe.
http://www.pointparkglobe.com/news/new-club-reaches-out-to-community-1.1376514
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