Read the full story here Web Link posted Friday, November 19, 2021, 6:50 AM
https://paloaltoonline.com/square/print/2021/11/19/holiday-fund-friends-for-youth-is-in-the-business-of-making-human-connections
Town Square
Holiday Fund: Friends for Youth is in the business of making human connections
Original post made on Nov 19, 2021
Read the full story here Web Link posted Friday, November 19, 2021, 6:50 AM
Comments
Posted by Jon Keeling
a resident of Community Center
on Nov 19, 2021 at 11:12 am
Jon Keeling is a registered user.
a resident of Community Center
on Nov 19, 2021 at 11:12 am
Jon Keeling is a registered user.
Wow! This is great! How is it I'd never heard of this program?
About 6 or 7 years ago, I saw an email asking adults in Palo Alto if they were interested in mentoring Palo Alto high school students. I jumped at it. But I soon discovered that all they wanted was people to help students organize their college applications. Yuck. I respectfully withdrew my offer. I then set out on trying to find a REAL mentoring program in Palo Alto. But for some reason I never came across any info for Friends for Youth! If I had, I definitely would have joined them. I ended up mentoring for "MentorTutorConnection," which works with high school students in Mountain View and Los Altos and does a fantastic job.
After mentoring a couple students through MTC (I still keep in touch with one of them, who is now a student at Foothill and doing great), I started trying to set up a similar program (just the mentoring; not tutoring) in Palo Alto. Unfortunately, nobody was willing to help so after a couple years I finally gave up. And I have continued mentoring many teens through my Karate program.
I am so glad that there is an actual mentoring program in Palo Alto. If I still lived there, I would definitely volunteer. I recommend that anyone with time and interest consider mentoring work. It is very rewarding for all involved.
