What I learned from mentoring a 13 year-old middle school student and from a toy solar-powered car

By Oscar E. Padilla
 
Oscar is a mentor in Los Angeles and was paired with Jesus for the fall semester.  As Senior Vice President of Marketing, Oscar leads all aspects of sales marketing for PULPO, Entravision’s fast growing digital media business unit.  Here, Oscar shares some key learnings from his first youth mentoring experience.

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I first learned about the Spark program in 2015 when I saw my Chief Marketing Officer walking around our offices every Thursday with a middle school kid. I later learned that our company was a corporate partner for this program, which focuses on matching working professionals with 7th and 8th graders in underserved communities, to undertake a mentoring role for 10 weeks.
 
At the core of the Spark mentorship program is a unique project or initiative you participate in with your student for the duration of the roughly two-month time period. The initial student/mentor matching process helps narrow down what your project will focus on. It took a little longer for my student and I to narrow down our project. After several brainstorming sessions, we selected a solar energy initiative. Because of this student’s love for cars, we found our “aha” moment in the form of a solar-powered car.
 
Getting our car off the ground from “concept” to “production-ready” was a true team effort. This team included my student and my colleague and co-mentor, Jessica Rivera Escobar. Before designing the car, we felt it would be necessary to gain an understanding of solar energy: its benefits, uses, and important facts about this energy source. My student was exposed to some rigorous research efforts, which he did on his own. Then came the blueprint planning stage and the fun in figuring out how we would build it. We did research for every component needed; car body parts, solar panels, electric motor options, and we learned how to put it all together. We also wanted to build a strong brand as part of our project.
 
Building the car was pretty straightforward since we had done the needed research and

had gathered all the parts and tools required to assemble the car. We encountered some “engineering” challenges (see below), but overall we successfully achieved our goal in building a functional toy car in time for our big presentation.
 
The big day was December 8, 2016, and we presented our project at the Bethune Middle School in Los Angeles alongside dozens of other Spark students and mentors. The place was packed with students, teachers, other mentors and parents. My student did exceptionally well. He prepared a poster to explain the benefits of solar energy and how he was inspired to build the car. Although he was a little nervous at the beginning of his presentation, by the sixth presentation he was a total pro—confident, eloquent, and speaking knowledgeably on all aspects of his project. It was an extremely satisfying and proud moment to see how my student made noticeable progress, transforming from a shy and quiet student to a more assertive and self-reliant one in just a few weeks. That is precisely what the Spark program is all about.
 
Below are five important lessons I learned from the Spark mentoring program:
 

1. Great ideas come organically. We had a number of ideas we contemplated for this project, but the inspiration for the solar car came to our student from a light art piece sitting on my desk. While I was busy researching options and overthinking what we could do, our student was observing the surrounding environment to come up with an idea for a project that was simple to execute but at the same time would stand out as unique and engaging.
2. Letting go of control goes a long way. While I was trying to follow the program to the letter and comply with a more rigid structure, I quickly learned this was not going to be the best approach. My co-worker, Jessica, took a more conversational and natural tone with our student, and it helped him open up and interact with us in a positive way.
   
   
3. Now matter how well you plan, you’re going to have setbacks. It was fortunate that our car didn’t actually make it into a full market production. Once we had fully assembled the car, we found two significant flaws. First, our car only traveled in reverse! This was easily fixed, but the bigger problem was that our car was too heavy to move due to the low voltage engine and solar power system we assembled. As I explained to our student, we took a proof-of-concept approach in which future iterations would allow for perfection. This rapid development approach provided a solid understanding of the basics of this technology and the value of solar power.
   
4. Don’t underestimate what you can learn from a 13 year-old. It became apparent in working with my student that this process was a two-way learning experience. In working together, I felt he was influencing me as much or more as I was influencing him as the weeks went by. He had an innate curiosity that was contagious, and his comments and observations continually helped to further advance our project. At the end of the program, I was truly looking forward to talking more about my experience in working with him and bragging about our project.
   
   
5. Project-based mentoring is extremely powerful. Spark is unique from other mentoring programs in both its approach and in the age group of the students. Spark focuses on working with 7th and 8th graders that are at an exceedingly susceptible age for learning. The program places students in control of projects that they see through to fruition. The project approach exposes students to many different facets of real life experiences such as planning an event, building a model, creating a business plan or creating a new technology. All of these initiatives have one thing in common: the opportunity to learn by doing.

The Spark program is indeed a life-changing program for youth and for the mentors that decide to get involved in their communities and make a difference. I highly recommend this experience for other corporate leaders and professionals that are willing to take the time to change a life or two. It is an amazing experience for everyone involved.
 
To read original version of article published in linked, click here.

Tapping Into the Power of Peers: Supporting Students through School Transitions

This month, Spark is proud to partner with MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership and many other organizations in celebrating National Mentoring Month!  In honor of all mentoring efforts, we share here a guest blog post from peer organization Center for Supportive Schools.  While Spark pairs students with adult mentors for workplace-based mentoring, Center for Supportive Schools' unique model leverages peer-to-peer mentoring in their school-based program.  No matter the format, when implemented effectively, mentoring programs across the country and around the globe are working to close the mentoring gap. 

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“I always looked forward to meeting with my peer group because they were like family and they led me down the right path.”
– 9^th grade Peer Group Connection (PGC) participant

There exists a profound weakness in the support provided to students during their transitions into middle and high school. Across all communities, these transitions can destabilize many students^[1] and are often marked by declines in academic achievement,^[2] competency beliefs,^[3] motivation,^[4] and self-esteem.^[5],[6] Further, transitioning students often display increased psychological distress^[7] and referrals to mental health services;^[8] and the start of smoking, alcohol, drug, violence, discipline, and attendance problems.^[9],[10] Left unaddressed, these serious problems can result in devastating long-term consequences including dropping out of school.

For nearly 40 years, the Center for Supportive Schools (CSS) has activated the most underutilized resource in schools – the students themselves – as a powerful force for creating caring and vibrant school communities that support students throughout and beyond these periods of increased vulnerability.

Why the transition years matter. 

A leading researcher on improving high-poverty secondary schools, Dr. Bob Balfanz calls the first year of the middle grades (typically 6^th grade), “a make-or-break year.”[11] In his landmark 2009 brief,[12] Dr. Balfanz asserts that in high-poverty environments, a student’s middle grades experience strongly impacts the odds of graduating from high school. Further, in high-poverty environments it is possible to identify in the middle grades up to half, and sometimes even more, of eventual dropouts.

By the time they reach high school, more than half of all students are “chronically disengaged” from school.[13] Research consistently demonstrates that students are most vulnerable for dropping out of school during and immediately following their first year of high school.[14] More students fail 9th grade than any other grade[15] and promotion rates between 9th and 10th grade are much lower than rates between other grades.[16]

Power of peers. 

Peer group interactions and school culture and climate have consistently been named among the most influential factors on student learning.[17] Further, a mounting body of evidence clearly indicates that, compared to students who do not participate in such programs, students who receive programming focused on social and emotional learning (SEL) academically outperform their peers, get better grades, and graduate at higher rates.[18] In 1979, CSS introduced a peer mentoring model known as Peer Group Connection (PGC) that combines all of these mechanisms – caring peer groups, supportive school climates, and SEL skill development – to improve educational outcomes for youth transitioning into high school. Now available for high schools and middle schools, PGC is currently implemented in over 250 schools nationally.

PGC supports incoming middle and high school students (9th graders or 6th graders) by immersing them in safe, supportive groups led by older peer mentors. Carefully selected older students (11^th and 12^th graders in high schools; 8^th graders in middle schools) are trained as part of their regular school schedule in a daily, 45-minute leadership development class to become peer mentors and serve as positive role models and group facilitators for their younger peers. Peer mentors work in pairs to co-lead groups of 10 to 14 younger students in regularly scheduled (three to four times per month) sessions in which the younger students participate in engaging, hands-on activities in supportive environments.

“I think that being a [peer mentor] has taught me how to be able to help and mentor people my age and younger to show them why whatever it is that they’re doing is important and also lead them on the path of success.”

-PGC Peer Mentor

Rutgers University conducted a randomized, 4-year longitudinal study of the effect of PGC on 4-year cohort graduation rates at one high school in an urban community serving an economically disadvantaged population. Results indicated that PGC improved graduation rates of participants by 9 percentage points and improved the graduation rates of male participants by 18 percentage points.[19]

Through PGC and other approaches that harness the power of peers, CSS helps schools leverage the leadership potential of students to accomplish three important goals:

1. students become more closely connected with school and more deeply engaged in their own learning, which research makes clear leads to greater academic achievement;
2. students develop leadership, social/emotional, non-cognitive skills that research shows are critical to college and career success; and
3. schools help solve for their resource constraints by adding many, many more helping hands.

Our goal is that safer and more supportive, engaging, and inspiring schools are equipped to  address the special needs of transitioning students and enable and inspire their leadership and their success.

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By Dr. Margo Ross, Senior Director of Development

Margo Ross, Psy.D., is Senior Director of Development at the Center for Supportive Schools, a nonprofit organization with a 37-year history of partnering with schools to train and mobilize students to be lifelong leaders who make schools better for themselves, their peers, and younger students. Dr. Ross has been a member of the staff at CSS for over 15 years and is a certified school psychologist in New Jersey. She holds both a doctorate and a master's degree in school psychology from the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University and a bachelor's degree in psychology from Rutgers University.

About Center for Supportive Schools

The Center for Supportive Schools (CSS, formerly Princeton Center for Leadership Training) develops, disseminates, and promotes peer leadership, advisory, and other evidence-based K-12 solutions that enable and inspire schools to more fully engage students in learning, better connect students to their schools, motivate and equip students to make decisions responsibly, and accelerate academic achievement. Since 1979, CSS has partnered with 350 schools in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, and Washington, D.C., and 8 other states. Our work has touched hundreds of thousands of students, educators, and families. www.supportiveschools.org

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[1] Elias, M. J. (2001). Middle School Transition: It's Harder Than You Think: Making the Transition to Middle School Successful; Middle Matters, Winter 2001, 1-2. Retrieved from http://www.onteora.k12.ny.us/cms/lib01/NY24000036/Centricity/Domain/14/10-11TaskForceResearch/MSTransitionHarder.pdf

[2] Theriot, M. T. & Dupper, D. (2009). Student Discipline Problems and the Transition From Elementary to Middle School. Education and Urban Society 42(2), 205 – 222. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249682231_Student_Discipline_Problems_and_the_Transition_From_Elementary_to_Middle_School

[3] Wigfield, A., & Eccles, J. (1994). Children’s competence beliefs, achievement values, and general self-esteem: Change across elementary and middle school. Journal of Early Adolescence, 14(2), 107-138.

[4] Theriot, M. T. & Dupper, D. (2009). Student Discipline Problems and the Transition From Elementary to Middle School. Education and Urban Society 42(2), 205 – 222. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249682231_Student_Discipline_Problems_and_the_Transition_From_Elementary_to_Middle_School

[5] Elias, M. J. (2001). Middle School Transition: It's Harder Than You Think: Making the Transition to Middle School Successful; Middle Matters, Winter 2001, 1-2. Retrieved from http://www.onteora.k12.ny.us/cms/lib01/NY24000036/Centricity/Domain/14/10-11TaskForceResearch/MSTransitionHarder.pdf

[6] Wigfield, A., & Eccles, J. (1994). Children’s competence beliefs, achievement values, and general self-esteem: Change across elementary and middle school. Journal of Early Adolescence, 14(2), 107-138.

[7] Theriot, M. T. & Dupper, D. (2009). Student Discipline Problems and the Transition From Elementary to Middle School. Education and Urban Society 42(2), 205 – 222. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249682231_Student_Discipline_Problems_and_the_Transition_From_Elementary_to_Middle_School

[8] Elias, M. J. (2001). Middle School Transition: It's Harder Than You Think: Making the Transition to Middle School Successful; Middle Matters, Winter 2001, 1-2. Retrieved from http://www.onteora.k12.ny.us/cms/lib01/NY24000036/Centricity/Domain/14/10-11TaskForceResearch/MSTransitionHarder.pdf

[9] Elias, M. J. (2001). Middle School Transition: It's Harder Than You Think: Making the Transition to Middle School Successful; Middle Matters, Winter 2001, 1-2. Retrieved from http://www.onteora.k12.ny.us/cms/lib01/NY24000036/Centricity/Domain/14/10-11TaskForceResearch/MSTransitionHarder.pdf

[10] Theriot, M. T. & Dupper, D. (2009). Student Discipline Problems and the Transition From Elementary to Middle School. Education and Urban Society 42(2), 205 – 222. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249682231_Student_Discipline_Problems_and_the_Transition_From_Elementary_to_Middle_School

[11] Balfanz, R. (2009). Putting Middle Grades Students on the Graduation Path: A Policy and Practice Brief. The Everyone Graduates Center and Talent Development Middle Grades Program, National Middle School Association. Retrieved from https://www.amle.org/portals/0/pdf/articles/policy_brief_balfanz.pdf

[12] Balfanz, R. (2009). Putting Middle Grades Students on the Graduation Path: A Policy and Practice Brief. The Everyone Graduates Center and Talent Development Middle Grades Program, National Middle School Association. Retrieved from https://www.amle.org/portals/0/pdf/articles/policy_brief_balfanz.pdf

[13] Blum, R. (2005). School connectedness: Improving the lives of students. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Retrieved from http://cecp.air.org/download/MCMonographFINAL.pdf

[14] Cohen, J. & Smerdon, B. (2009). Tightening the dropout tourniquet: Easing the transition from middle to high school. Preventing School Failure, 53, 177-183.

[15] Kennelly, L. and Monrad, M. (2007). Easing the transition to high school: Research and best practices designed to support high school learning. Washington DC: American Institutes for Research. Retrieved from http://www.betterhighschools.org/docs/NHSC_TransitionsReport.pdf

[16] Wheelock, A. & Miao, J. (2005). The ninth-grade bottleneck: An enrollment bulge

in a transition year that demands careful attention and action. The School Administrator, 62(3),

36.

[17] Wang, M. C., Haertel, G. D., & Walberg, H. J. (1997). What do we know: Widely implemented school improvement programs. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Center for Research in Human Development and Education.

[18] Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (2007). Background of social and emotional learning. Retrieved on September 13, 2011 from http://casel.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/SELCASELbackground.pdf

[19] Johnson, V.L., Simon, P., & Mun, E.-Y. (2014). A peer-led high school transition program increases graduation rates among Latino males. The Journal of Educational Research, 107(3), 186-196.