Leo Sanchez debated presidential politics with Crain. Amber Vochatzer shared her dream of one day performing on Broadway. Both teens gave Crain details about prom.
What’s unusual about these Youth Friends relationships is that they blossomed and grew entirely through e-mail. On Wednesday, Crain and the teens finally met over lunch.
The three are part of Youth Friends’ e-mentoring program, in which students and mentors communicate weekly by e-mail throughout the school year. The program began at Youth Friends in 2000 and this year matched mentors with 390 area students at eight middle and high schools.
In a traditional Youth Friends program, adults meet with students at their schools each week for an hour.
At Bonner Springs High School, where Sanchez and Vochatzer will graduate this spring, 164 students — the entire senior class — were hooked up with 122 e-mentors. The high school’s special education students did not participate.
“It’s amazing how close the relationships are,” said Larry Berg, Youth Friends and business partnerships coordinator for the Bonner Springs/Edwardsville School District. Berg and English teacher Chris Wood got the all-senior class mentoring program launched during the 2001-02 school year.
“It’s a bridge from senior class to the real world,” Berg said.
Denise Kruse, Youth Friends board president, said she was surprised how close she has become to the students she has e-mentored at Bonner Springs. Kruse likes the flexibility of using the computer because she travels for work.
Kruse also sees the worth in involving the entire class.
“It shows that the program isn’t just for at-risk kids,” she said. “There are valedictorians, very involved kids.”
Vochatzer said the students like the program’s high-tech side.
“That’s what we are used to now,” she said.
Don’t forget…
The City Union Mission will hold an open house of its new men’s Christian Life Program facility from 3 to 6 p.m. May 13 at 1111 E. 10th St.
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