December’s Mentor of the Month

This month’s Mentor of the Month goes by the username “OliveJuice” (real name: Shanae Core):

Shanae felt the need for something to keep her focused and grounded in her life, which led her to find the icouldbe.org program.  She enjoys most the online aspect of icouldbe, as well as the friendly banter, message board conversations, and the friendships that evolve between mentors, mentees and herself.

Shanae’s eyes have been opened by her mentoring experience: she was surprised to learn that in some of the larger high schools, classrooms have up to 36 students. She was also appalled to see students talking on the discussion boards about the dangers that they have to deal with on an everyday basis. Some of the students Shanae encounters when mentoring can be challenging, but it only motivates her to interact and have more in-depth conversations.  She also makes an effort to be friendly, with a dash of “silliness,” in her email interactions with mentees, finding that to be an effective way to communicate and help the students – something she sincerely wants to do.

Shanae shares the three things she likes the most about her mentoring experience at icouldbe: Learning about the differences in the lives of mentees from her own life; giving advice and seeing her advice put into action (and hearing that it worked for them!); and discussing why “grown-ups” might do the things they do.

Shanae says, “I feel very blessed to be a part of this program.  I can be having an off day here at work and a random email from a student will turn it all around.  I might be young and I might be semi-inexperienced, but I am very eager to lend a helping hand… I never thought that I would grow so attached to the kids!  They feel like family to me now.  I look forward to all of their email updates, ideas, thoughts, etc., and I hope we continue talking throughout the years to come… My only advice would be to give this program a chance! The people, the talks, the students, the love—it’s worth every single minute of effort poured in.”

Volunteerism – Tis’ the Season!

The holidays are a great time to volunteer and give to your favorite charity. However, many people don’t have the means or time to give in the meaningful way they’d like.

Icouldbe.org gives you the opportunity to give a meaningful gift of learning all year…and it’s easy!  Our online mentoring requires about an hour per week, so you can give the gift of insight and knowledge all year, anytime, from your home or office, to a child who needs to learn about all the possibilities for their education and career, possibilities they never knew existed before your becoming their mentor.

What better gift to give this holiday season than making a connection with a child and guiding them towards their dreams for the future? Visit http://www.icouldbe.org http://www.icouldbe.org to learn more about becoming a mentor.

January is National Mentoring Month!

We have been busy preparing for the New Year, which starts with National Mentoring Month!

Thinking about last years New Year’s resolution and how far you got or did not get? Becoming an icouldbe.org mentor is a great way to give back.  What a wonderful New Year’s resolution – to help a child in need of your personal support and guidance.   By becoming an online mentor, you only need to commit one hour per week and you can do it from the comfort of your home or office, or wherever you can login to our system.

If this sounds like a resolution that you can keep, log on to www.icouldbe.org to learn more.  You can make a huge impact on the life of a child who might otherwise give up on their dreams.  Check us out today!

Vote for icouldbe!

Chase is enlisting Facebook users, now totaling more than 300 million, to vote for small and local nonprofits to receive donations totaling $5 million. The eligible charity receiving the most votes will be awarded $1 million, the top five runners-up will receive $100,000 each and the 100 finalists, including the top winners, will be awarded $25,000 each.

Everyone is able to vote for a total of 20 charities – why not use one of your votes for icouldbe.org? Icouldbe has helped over 15,000 students get mentoring to discover and reach their career and educational dreams – we’d love to help another 15,000 more this year.

Follow this link to vote for us, as well as vote for your favorite organizations: http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/charities/597574

Welcome!

Wow! This is our first-ever blog entry. We plan to use this arena as a place to share information on online mentoring, stories from our organization, and news specific to the mentoring and education industries.

So – who are we?

icouldbe.org is an online mentoring program connecting high school students from diverse communities with mentors from across the country. We develop meaningful relationships between students and e-mentors, and explore students’ interests and dreams for the future.

You can help a student from anywhere in the country learn about their job or college opportunities, or even teach them about your own career. The result is rewarding on both ends – you get to do something helpful and give back to the community, while changing and enhancing a child’s life in the process.

Visit icouldbe.org for more details on how to become a mentor, corporate partner or request information on how your school can be part of icouldbe.org. We’re also on Facebook and Twitter.