The University’s Young Women Leaders Program recently was awarded the Virginia Mentoring Partnership’s 2009 Outstanding Mentoring Program Award. The award, which is given annually, recognizes two mentoring programs, one in the Richmond area and another throughout the rest of Virginia.
Rebekah Holbrook, public relations and project specialist for VMP, said the award was created 10 years ago to “recognize mentoring programs that are doing an outstanding job at working with young people.”
VMP accepts nominations for outstanding mentoring programs in the fall, and a panel later reads the nominations and chooses two mentoring programs to receive the award. The panel looks at many aspects of a program when choosing award winners, Holbrook said, adding that a program’s effectiveness is especially important.
Curry School Prof. Edith “Winx” Lawrence, cofounder and director of the program, said the program began in 1998 “because of the need to address middle school girls with low self-esteem.”
Lawrence noted that she thought the best way to address issues among middle school girls was to pair them with successful college women. For an entire year, the girls would meet with their mentors, who would address issues like relational aggression, body image, health choices, academic challenges, leadership and decision-making through weekly meetings and activities, she said.
Holbrook said the University’s Young Women Leaders Program stood out among other nominations because the program helped young women see the potential benefits of attending college.
She applauded the program for what she called its effective practice and great infrastructure, which includes a three-tier mentoring system. Lawrence said this system — which now pairs undergraduate women with graduate students and faculty members — “offers support all the way up, so everyone is mentored.”
The program is also unique in the way it trains its mentors, who must take a three-credit course focusing on research and theory about adolescent girls.
“It’s not easy to mentor adolescent girls,” Lawrence said.
Since 1998, the University program has trained more than 1,000 mentors, Lawrence said, adding that this year, 115 mentors already have been paired with 7th and 8th grade girls from four middle schools in Albemarle County.
“It was very delightful to receive the award because the graduate students and college women put in a lot of hours and energy,” Lawrence said. “It’s really nice for them to be acknowledged.”
In addition to the 2009 Outstanding Mentoring Program Award, YWLP also has received two grants, both worth about $500,000, from the Department of Education and the W.T. Grant Foundation in the past year.
According to a press release from VMP, the Young Women Leaders Program will be honored at a ceremony Feb. 12 at The Jefferson Hotel in Richmond. The ceremony is meant to fall roughly after the end of National Mentoring Month, which was in January.
The Latino Education and Advancement Program of Richmond will also be honored at the event, along with Mentors of the Year Claudia Biegler, Susan Meyers and Sergeant Darrel E. Nichols.
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