For the past few months, Ripple Effect 22 (RE22) has been hosting mentorship sessions at Our Lady of the Visitacion School (which we are now partnered with). We have these sessions once a month on a Monday, and we alternate between bringing our 2 interns, Heaven and Lamariae. Both of them have been to 2 different sessions so far. We asked them to write about their experiences…
Heaven, 15:
Once a month, Ripple Effect 22 (RE22) goes to Our Lady of the Visitation (OLV) for a mentorship session with the students there. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend one of these sessions in October. This particular session, RE22 was focused on getting the kids to visualize. Stefan started by playing a spoken word for the kids. The spoken word was about picturing where you would be in 20 years. The students were told to close their eyes and listen to the spoken word. After the visualization was over, the students opened their eyes and split into groups. Once they were in their groups, they talked about what they saw when they were listening to the spoken word. Many kids were very vague at first when they talked about their future.
But part of visualizing is going into detail, so we pushed them. If they said they wanted to be a doctor, we asked them how they could achieve that. If they said they wanted children, we asked them what their names would be. We got them to go into very specific details. After everyone was done sharing, everyone got back together and some people shared with the entire class. This session made me realize how much of a difference mentorship really makes. Some of these kids didn’t even know what they wanted to do, but after talking to the mentors they had a better understanding of what they wanted to do and how to get there. I think everyone needs a mentor because a push in the right direction can really help.
Lamariae, 14:
These past few months I have been to Our Lady of the Visitacion School (OLV). It’s been fun mentoring and helping kids. I like helping to mentor these kids because it’s my job, and sometimes it’s nice to talk to someone who is your age or at least close to your age. Overall, my experiences there were really fun and I would like to do keep helping with these sessions. The first time I went there, the Ripple Effect 22 (RE22) staff and mentors talked about the value of mentorship. This is important to me because I look up to my mom and dad as mentors. For other people it might be different who they look up to. The second time I went there, we talked about reaching goals. This is also important to me because I have some goals I want to reach myself: I want to become a brain surgeon. For some other kids they might want to be something else. We’re all different.