LANSING - Jacqueline Coleman is taking the first step at giving back to a volunteer program that gave her so much.
“I’ve had mentors in the past,” said Coleman, an MSU graduate. “I found it very helpful and am now looking to become one.”
Coleman was one of the roughly 40 volunteers who signed up Thursday to be a mentor during the Volunteer Center of Mid-Michigan’s Mentor Open House, at the American Red Cross, 1800 E. Grand River Ave. in Lansing.
During the open house, volunteers met face to face with organizations that paired them with children, students, foster children, young parents and refugees requesting a mentor.
Agencies and organizations present at the open house were the Girl Scouts, Boys and Girls Club, Youth Development Corporation, Child Abuse Prevention Services, Neighborhood Youth and Parent Prevention Partnership and the Lansing and East Lansing school districts.
Melissa Sherry, director of operations at the Volunteer Center of Mid-Michigan, said the presence of a mentor or role model is significant to personal development.
“On the part of the mentee, I see significant growth as a person,” Sherry said. “Hopefully that mentor serves as a strong enough role model to deter that person from making bad decisions in their life.”
Erin Reyes, a 27-year-old Lansing resident, is a mentor to a 14-year-old Lansing Everett High School student. Reyes has been her mentor for a year and a half.
“I love it,” Reyes said. “The most important thing is that it empowers you, because a lot of kids I work with don’t think they have a voice. You get to show them opportunities.”
Reyes said she learns from the kids she works with.
“Alicia’s shown me a lot of things,” Reyes said about her mentee. “She’s taken me to activities at her church and home.”
There are a few characteristics an ideal mentor possesses, but Reyes said anyone with the heart to do it is qualified.
“You just have to like meeting new people and be genuine,” Reyes said. “That’s the only two kinds of requirements there are.”
Anne Soderman, MSU professor in family and child ecology, said the university encourages child development students to take advantage of volunteer opportunities because some aren’t aware of what it takes to work with children.
Soderman said mentoring is significant for both students and those they reach out to.
“It’s extremely important that (children) run into adults who are interested in them,” Soderman said. “What (mentors) would be doing is filling in some gaps in others’ development.”
For more information, visit www.volunteerlansing.org.
