We are gathering and training mentors who want to journey with cohorts of students from ninth grade to graduation. In the future, we’d hope to start in middle school. We find that many school administrators and teachers are forced to give most of their attention to the top-performing 5% and the lower-performing 5%. We want to bridge some of that gap.

Most scholarships invest in “successful” students their junior/senior year (based on skills, GPA, test scores, etc.). We want to invest freshmen more for their potential, less for what they’ve proven.

But getting students excited about mentoring is difficult. Finding a dedicated mentor is even harder. As a result, our mentors want to put our money where our mouth is. Forward Mentoring is an incentivized 4-year mentoring program that commits at least $1,000 to each Forward Student every year they fully engage in the program. These funds are set aside to support students’ future vocational endeavors and will be available upon High School graduation.

But students need more immediate positive encouragement, right? As a result, we are crafting parent-approved fun-centives that they will receive as students reach different collaborative milestones.

We are committed. We are present. We are passionate about every inch of progress that it takes to grow as a person.

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Daniel Stidham
Executive Director, Mentor