During the third week of school, I was given a student to mentor, David. I was thoroughly excited realizing that this would mean one on one time to build a healthy, positive, adult relationship with this student. After reading over David’s school profile I was surprised by the behavior of this 12 year old student. Had a difficult home life, fairly aggressive behavior, and had numerous think times and detention’s. I was motivated to encourage David to persevere through school regardless of the barriers in his life but also unsure what this would or could look like.
After an awkward first encounter, I began to check in with him daily during his lunch and visit with his friends. Last week I found out that David was on ISD (In School Detention) because of his behavior. At first, I felt defeated with this news, thinking, “How can I make an impact on David’s life” but was reminded that I am not “fixing” any of these students on my own. If helping David is about me and how much I can do for him on my own, then forget it, but if I can work with others to seek the best interests of this student and other students at this school then perhaps David and those others can experience successful and a healthy lives. I began to collaborate with his counselor and we encouraged him to attend an after school club every week. I was able to sit and converse with David for 30 minutes, which was a success in itself and was one of the most encouraging conversations I have had yet as a Communities In Schools employee.