ISO: A Hoop Dreams Scholarship Fund Mentor

Thank you to Hoop Dreams for sending this to the Punch.  Please consider becoming a “Mentor” for a young person.  You’d have some big shoes to fill, so you’d better be up for the challenge!  Ted Leonsis and Jimmy Lynn of AOL have both been Mentors and have seen their Mentee’s go on to greatness.  Surely, the integration of these men in their lives helped.  Opportunities truly abound in this program.  Learn more about how you too can take some of your valuable time and not only make it more meaningful, but you will assist in bettering the life of a high school student:  

The Hoop Dreams Scholarship Fund (HDSF) offers Washington, D.C. public high school students the unique opportunity to develop relationships with working professionals from the Washington region through a comprehensive Empowerment Program. Individual students pair with working professionals who help them navigate their college application and financial aid process.

HDSF’s Empowerment Program is currently seeking dedicated adult volunteers to serve as year-long mentors to high school seniors. Adult volunteers will be asked to attend one Saturday mentoring session once a month from October through May. The monthly mentoring sessions, which are held at George Washington University, will feature guest speakers from accomplished backgrounds in business, politics and education. Some past speakers have included D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and a number of current D.C. City Council members. Each monthly session also features a seminar on various topics, such as navigating the financial aid process and constructing the best college application essay. In addition to attending the monthly mentoring sessions volunteers will also be asked to meet with their assigned student at least twice a month. These in-person meetings can be in the form of trips to the local library to research scholarship information or fun and free outings to local museums. Each student-mentor pair will also work on assignments and fun activities, like the college essay writing process. But most importantly, mentors help guide their student through the sometimes overwhelming college application process.

If you or anyone you know would be interested in investing in the lives of our youth please visit www.hoopdreams.org/mentoring.htm for more information. You may also contact Theodore Brannum at tbrannum@hoopdreams.org for additional information.