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June 24, 2011
Fostering mentorships
KDHS connects its students with young buddies.
MICHELLE DODEK
How many parents have considered the level of privilege their children experience in day-to-day life, surrounded by everything they need and most of what they want, driven here and there for their activities and pleasure every day. Shoshana Burton, a teacher at King David High School, has considered this fact many times over and has asked herself: “Do our kids have enough chances to give? Many kids need the opportunity to give back presented to them.”
Burton came up with an idea based on the life-changing experience she had as a teenage mentor for a younger child. “I got more than I gave and discovered the power of giving,” she said. “It shaped my life. Being a teacher is a way to give, and that experience as a teenager was my inspiration.”
This school year saw the inaugural Kol Yisrael Chaverim program at the Jewish high school. The program is designed to match a Grade 11 student with a younger child in the Jewish community. Burton sent out requests through Vancouver Talmud Torah, Richmond Jewish Day School and Jewish Family Service Agency to find families wishing to have a “big brother/sister” matched to their children.
The response was a surprise to Burton. “There were not many families interested. So many of our students were willing to make the commitment to be mentors but we need to raise awareness that this amazing program exists so more families can take advantage of it,” she explained.
To this end, 14 KDHS students participated in a two-day training session sponsored in part by a grant from Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, at which they each committed to spending time with his or her younger partner once a week for two years. The training included a session with a life coach and a speaker on self-esteem issues, and Rabbi Avraham Feiglestock provided insight into social responsibility from a Jewish perspective. Faced with the significant responsibility that goes with the commitment to mentor, the students responded enthusiastically. As they described their younger buddies to the Independent, the KDHS mentors wore broad smiles.
David Rosengarten was the first to explain how much being involved with his buddy has meant to him. “I saw this as a great way to give back, to do something where the effects are tangible and you see the impacts on people’s lives,” he explained. “We are really good buddies now and I’m really happy to be his buddy. He’s taught me lots of things, like how to play basketball properly.” Rosengarten’s buddy is graduating from VTT this year and is planning to come to KDHS in the fall. “He’ll mesh here a lot easier,” said Rosengarten, who just became president of the KDHS student council.
Samantha Levin was also thrilled to have been a mentor this year. Her buddy is a student at RJDS and, she said, the two have really clicked. “It’s fun for me to hang out with her. I like being a role model to her and we have built a strong relationship,” she said. “We look forward to seeing each other.” Levin lives in Vancouver but has made arrangements to see her Richmond-based buddy by using public transit. She looks forward to next year, when they will continue their weekly visits.
Another mentor, Yuval Burton, is satisfied with the way his relationship with his buddy has developed. Though it took them time to bond, at the recent bowling party, at which the mentors and buddies hung out as a large group, Burton said he realized how comfortable his buddy had become.
Burton’s friend, Sol Zettler, also served as a mentor during the school year, and he indicated that it had been a very positive experience for him, too. Zettler and a friend mentor two brothers who are recent arrivals from Brazil. “They are learning to speak English and when we hang out, we play a lot of soccer,” said Zettler in a laidback tone. “They sometimes bring friends, too. It’s good.”
As enthusiastic as the students are about the relationships they are forming, Burton and new director of development at KDHS Sharon Dwek seem equally excited. The mentoring program is just one of the many initiatives Burton has initiated in her years at KDHS.
For her part, Dwek is employing a Spiral Five-Year Curriculum on Social Action to ensure that elements can be more seamlessly integrated into the curriculum of the high school. “We are looking at the structure for the kids, cognitively, emotionally and physically. It’s all part of the service learning that is so important here.” According to Dwek, imbuing this sense of giving back to the community through volunteerism is best done right before the teenagers enter adulthood.
Both Burton and Dwek began listing for the Independent recent graduates who have gone on to important positions that allow them to give back to society, including those who are politically active and prominently involved in humanitarian projects and social-action nonprofit organizations. Two students have set up a program for underprivileged kids to participate in science projects at University of British Columbia science labs, for example.
Burton explained that many of these former students come back to share their experiences and continue to inspire the students at KDHS. Dwek agreed: “King David is a breeding ground for social action initiatives,” she said. “We also give them fundraising skills for their causes and they feed it back to the younger generation.”
Kol Yisrael Chaverim mentors are giving back to the youngest generation in our community. A single mom who wished to remain anonymous has both a son and a daughter involved in the program as young buddies of the KDHS mentors. She is pleased with the results she sees: “There is a lot of care from both sides. With us, it was a great fit with personalities and characters. I see it as a blessing.”
For more information on how to connect a child you know with a mentor, contact Burton at [email protected].
Michelle Dodek is a Vancouver freelance writer.
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