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The Collaborative, A Center for Community-Based Learning, Service, and Public Scholarship sees as part of its central mission to serve our most vulnerable population, youth, as a means of investing in our community’s future. We maximize the strengths of our undergraduate students—high energy, enthusiasm, and closeness in age—to be role models and help at-risk youth imagine different possibilities for their future. A unique aspect of the program is the support we give our student mentors and the academic framework provided to increase their cultural sensitivity and background knowledge to better serve and also grow from the experience. The Collaborative’s Mentoring Program piloted in 2010 with the Rutgers Future Scholars Program to provide 300 promising New Brunswick and Piscataway high school students with on-going mentoring support to keep them on a college-bound trajectory. The Mentoring Program matches every scholar with a Rutgers undergraduate student who is a role model in academics, service, and leadership. Under the academic leadership of Dr. Maurice Elias, Rutgers Professor of Psychology and nationally renowned expert in social/emotional learning, undergraduate students receive an academic framework to inform their mentoring practice through a series of courses that teach them: *how to support their mentee with time management, resisting peer pressure, and goal setting *adolescent development *culturally responsive mentoring techniques *what factors derail low-income students *overcoming structural educational disparities In addition, Mentors have the option of participating in Leadership Committees that plan enrichment activities for the Scholars such as spending a day during their spring break shadowing their mentor on campus. Since its inception, the Mentoring Program has been shown to: *Positively impact grades, self-confidence, and self-esteem of the mentees. *Increase awareness of college life and what it takes to succeed in college. *Build leadership skills in the over 150 participating mentors. For more information on the program or to apply, please contact: Megan Schramm-Possinger, Senior Program Coordinator of Education and Mentoring Phone: 732-932-8660 Email:
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