Our mentors are volunteers coming from all walks of life who agree to dedicate approximately two hours a week to work with one child throughout a semester. They can be young or old, single or married. Their ages currently range from early 20's to mid 60's.

Because so many stresses are put on families today, we generally discourage parents with young children from participating in the program. We do, however, encourage "empty-nesters" whose experience and guidance is extremely valuable, along with young people who want to learn how to work with children.

Most of our mentors are college graduates and several have or are working towards master's degrees.

Because our primary goal is to develop good citizens, time is set aside each night for a character discussion. These discussions focus on topics like honesty, hard work, and respect for other people and for their property.

During these discussions we also encourage our students to set meaningful and achievable goals for both school and life.

One of the strengths of our program is that it can be individually tailored to meet the needs of each student.

Typically sessions are divided into three parts. Approximately 75 minutes is allotted for academic tutoring, 15 minutes for a character discussion (character talks), and 30 minutes for sports and recreation.

A mentors story. Each Monday and Tuesday, a group of two dozen UD students car-pool to one of two elementary schools in the Irving area. They are volunteers with the Youth Achievement Foundation, a nonprofit organization which serves "at risk" elementary students. (more...)