Be a Hero. Mentor a child.

Did you know…the presence of at least one caring, supportive adult in a child’s life can make all the difference?

I’m passionate about student success and educational equality. Sometimes, we look at our education system, and all we see are the broken pieces the media reports on, so we toss up our hands and say, “well what can I do, I’m just one person,”  absolving ourselves from the whole thing. But, that’s exactly right–you are ONE person and ONE person is all it takes. That’s the Power of You.

Research shows that when adults get involved to mentor and work with students, they have the power to help kids increase academic achievement, stay on track, think more positively about themselves and increase their opportunities of going on to college.

Think you’re too busy to get involved? Mentoring doesn’t take as much time as you might think. It is as simple as signing up to read to a child for an hour a week. This can make all the difference in the life of an at-risk child, because statistics show us that a child that can’t read well by the end of third grade is FOUR times more likely to drop out of high school.

So, the easy way to earn your Super Hero cape? Sign up as a mentor. Help close the opportunity gap a little bit. And the funny thing is–you will end up feeling like you’re the one that was given a gift. That’s right! By helping someone else move forward a little bit…you move yourself forward.

If you don’t know where to start, try your local library or the United Way. If you already volunteer as a mentor, leave a comment and tell us what you’re involved in. If you think you might want to mentor a young person, but haven’t made the leap, what’s holding you back? I’d love to hear from you.

Source: Double Jeopardy: How 3rd Grade Reading Scores and Poverty Influence High School Graduation