Mentors Needed! |
Mentors are needed for gifted children in grades 3 to 8 in the Valley area. So far, I have spoken with the principals of two schools – Center for Educational Excellence in Chandler and School for the Advancement of Gifted Education (SAGE) in Phoenix – both of whom have expressed interest in participating in this new program.
We need mentors who are willing to spend 3 to 5 hours every other week with a child who shows giftedness in the mentor’s area of expertise. For instance, someone who utilizes advanced math skills (certain types of engineers or actuaries) would be paired with a child who is gifted in math. Or a child with a gift in writing could be paired up with a journalist or teacher or professor of English. Or an artistic or musical talent could benefit from an artist or musician.
The purposes of the program are: 1) to give gifted children who might be otherwise bored or underachievers (because classwork seems easy to them) encouragement to take advanced classes and work hard in them, and 2) a glimpse of what is available to them in the "real world" so that they can become excited about their giftedness. Your three to five hours a months could be spent in "career shadowing", taking an interest in the child’s studies and helping them, going to an exhibit or event, etc.
If you use a high level of a specific skill, PLEASE call me! This is a new program and I want it to be a success! - Yvonne Solbrekken, Community Outreach Coordinator, 917-3754 (If I’m not there, please leave name, phone number, and occupation)
*Please note that at this point we are only at the beginning development stage of the program and if we don’t receive enough interest we will not be able to start the program.
Literacy Project
Greater Phoenix Mensa is looking into starting a literacy program with Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s county jail. For those of you who attended his Monthly Forum in September, you will remember that he has started one of the first jail drug rehabilitation programs in the country, and one of the first high school programs as well.
I spoke with Sheriff Joe after that forum and he said that one of the main obstacles to both of these programs is that the prisoners who participate in them are often illiterate. Men in particular have lower functioning academic skills. They need individuals to tutor inmates in reading and writing, to give them a much-increased chance at success when they leave the jail. An interesting figure: 80+% of inmates as a whole return to the prison within one year after release. Of those in the rehabilitation program, already that number is reduced to 63%. Sheriff Joe believes that increasing literacy could further improve that number.
Tutoring would be once a week for 2-3 hours (1 hour tutoring plus getting in and out of the jail). There would be a 3 month minimum commitment, to enable you to work with one specific individual at a time. The coordinator of the ALPHA program, Thelda Williams, would need to first conduct a thorough background check on Mensa members who participate in this program.
Please help make our prison system more than a containment facility. Help turn around someone’s life, by calling me with your interest in this program. Yvonne Solbrekken, 917-3754 (leave name and number if I’m not there).