Mentoring in schools: Making a difference in students’ lives

The importance of a caring adult in a child’s life cannot be understated. A good mentor can help a child reach their full potential by providing encouragement, engagement, and stability.

In 1991, University of Nebraska Head Football Coach Tom Osborne founded a program that encouraged his players to make an impact on middle school students in Lincoln, Neb. The players had a tremendously positive effect on the students, and from there, TeamMates was born.

Coach Osborne and his wife worked to expand the mentoring program, in which adults were paired with kids in their communities. To maintain safety and oversight, the program was and remains entirely school-based. Mentors meet weekly with their mentees -- in the school setting, during the school day, usually during lunchtime. The pair spend about 45 minutes together, where they might eat lunch, play a game, do a craft, or other activities of the mentee’s choosing.

TeamMates currently operates in seven South Dakota school districts: Belle Fourche, Lead-Deadwood, Rapid City, Spearfish, Custer-Hermosa, Pierre, and Sioux Falls.

Mark Naugle, superintendent of Custer School District, is a mentor for three students in his area. Being a mentor has been personally rewarding for him; he has been involved in the program since 2018. “The program is not about you, what you want to do, it’s what the kid wants to do. I had a third grader grab Candyland, the princess edition, and we played. If your mentee wants to play that, you’ll do that. It’s all about the kid, what he does, what he wants to talk about. We talk about hard things.”

“One of the things I really like about the program is that it’s one more positive person in a kid’s life that cares about him,” said Naugle. The program does strengths testing with the students to help them identify their strengths. “Overall, I think this is a positive program for the kids, the school district, and the adults who do it. The kids feel positively about their mentor, and the mentor feels good about the program and the impact they’re having on their student.”

As Naugle points out, the mentor-student relationship is a win-win situation. Data from the TeamMates organization indicates that 82 percent of mentees feel more hopeful about their future, and 92 percent of mentors report leaving their mentoring time in a better mood.

Finding kids who want to join the mentoring program is easy, said Naugle. Finding mentors, however, is more difficult, especially mentors for boys. “Anyone who has a heart to give back to a kid would be a good candidate to be a mentor,” he said. “Anyone – older people, younger, full-time working, retired, anyone who wants to serve a kid for 45 minutes a week. It doesn’t take much to make a difference.”

All mentors are fully vetted before they are accepted into the program. The program provides training for the mentors and strict guidelines to ensure the safety of those involved.

Those interested in learning more about the TeamMates program should visit the TeamMates Mentoring website.