"Would You Want This for Your Children?"
January is National Mentoring Month, and schools across Greater Houston are asking for mentors more than ever before. After two years unlike any other in recent history, our children need adult role models who will be a listening ear. Contact Marilyn at marilyn@lovinghouston.net if you or your church would like to serve in this way.
When Principal Tiffany Foster first arrived at Pink Elementary, the school was very low-performing. The general sentiment on campus was, “That’s just who we are. We are always at the bottom.” This attitude did not sit well with Ms. Foster, and she set out to change it. She started asking her teachers and staff, “Is this something you would want for your own children?”
In essence, Ms. Foster was putting the greatest commandment into practice, encouraging her teachers and staff to love their students as if they were their own children. Just as we pursue every resource and opportunity for our own children, Ms. Foster pursued every resource and opportunity for her students. She knew that her teachers were working hard and that they did not want to see their students fail, but they had become so discouraged over time.
A Church Partnership
Then The Bridge Fellowship showed up, asking how they could help. The Bridge had previously provided financially for a few of Pink’s initiatives, but the church wanted to know if they could start serving in a more relational way. This request coincided perfectly with a mentoring program that school counselor Regina Garza wanted to start at Pink. Twenty-four Bridge members signed up to mentor that first year. This engagement of The Bridge members at Pink was a spark that lit a fire under the Pink community.
The students loved having a mentor to talk with, read with, or work on homework with. Kids starting stopping Ms. Foster in the hallway when they would see another student with a mentor. They would point to the mentor and exclaim, "I want one of those!"
Transformational Mentorship
Teachers started seeing examples of transformation across the campus and began to be re-energized. Disciplinary referrals decreased because students did not want to disappoint their mentors.
The students’ parents also began noticing that the teachers and volunteers genuinely cared about their children, and they wanted to get involved also. Slowly, the morale at Pink began to shift. Five years after Ms. Garza started the mentoring program, Pink had sixty-two mentors: a beautiful mix of The Bridge volunteers, community members, and parents.
Eternal Impact
School staff have also been impacted on a spiritual level. One staff member started attending The Bridge with her family because her experience with The Bridge volunteers was unlike anything she had experienced previously at a church. Another staff member returned to her own church after seeing Jesus’ faithful love from The Bridge volunteers for so many years.
At a school level during this time period, Pink improved their school rating from a D- to a B! Ms. Foster credits the “relationships that have been built” for the school’s success. Ms. Garza agrees: “This is what The Bridge started. It's their impact… [T]hey brought warmth, a smiling face, and kindness. It's just a ripple effect.”
Marilyn Lee is the Executive Director of Loving Houston, an organization committed to helping churches serve local schools. She has education, corporate, nonprofit, and ministry experience, a BA in Economics and Asian Studies from Rice University, and an MBA from the University of San Francisco with a focus on nonprofit management and development economics, with the specific goal of mobilizing churches to join God in what He is doing in our communities. Marilyn and her husband Andy love to travel, play sports, and spend time with friends and family.