“It takes one person to make a difference in the life of a child.” The Clarke County Mentor Program trains volunteers to act as mentors to students in all of the Clarke County public schools. The primary function of a mentor is to act as a friend. To be a mentor, you must be willing to dedicate one hour of your time per week for one school year. The time commitment is not much considering how much of an impact you have on these young children’s lives.

Sophomore, Suzanne Turry began mentoring about a year ago and is very passionate about her involvement.

“It's an incredible experience. You go on your own time and you can really tell how much your mentee appreciates you taking time out of your day to merely sit and talk with them or you can even play games with them. For Janiya and me, we always will sit and talk for a little then she takes me out to the kickball court and we play with all of her friends. She's even tried teaching me how to step dance and thinks it's the funniest thing when I try. I absolutely love it! It's fun to see them grow up and I also went to their school dance which was definitely an experience.”

Recent graduate, Hallie Alpern, shares memories of her mentorship experience.

“I was Tamera's mentor from the time she was in 6th grade until she finished 9th grade. She told me I inspired her to want to go to college, and that she now wants to be a mentor when she is in college. I'll never forget how meaningful that was!”

In the 2015-2016 school year, 346 new mentors were trained and over 8,000 mentor/mentee visits took place, and this year they are hoping to get even more! To get involved you must be at least 18 years old, complete a two-hour training session and commit to mentoring one hour a week. Clarke County Mentor Program’s website states: “To be a mentor, you don’t need special skills, just an ability to listen and to offer friendship, guidance and encouragement to a young person. And you’ll be amazed by how much you’ll get out of the experience.” Click here to apply! The next training session is Tuesday, November 15^th!