Spectrum Mentoring is pleased to introduce Nydia Guity. Nydia is a senior Bachelors in Social Work student at the University of Vermont who will be doing her field practicum with our program. Her office hours will be 9am-5pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays until May 09.
Nydia hails from NYC, The Bronx more specifically. She will be reachable via email at nguity@spectrumvt.org and phone 864-7423 ext. 204.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
Match of the Month for September: Linda O'Brien and Nina
For the month of September, we are so pleased to honor Linda O’Brien and her mentee, Nina, for match of the month. Although their friendship started much earlier, they will celebrate their one year match anniversary with Spectrum on September 28th.
Congratulations!!!
Linda never considered any kind of volunteer work with young people, but then one day the girl who lived next door “plunked herself down on my couch, we’ve been friends ever since.” Nina clearly chose Linda as her surrogate grandmother—being neighbors made it very easy to hang out with each other often. Since then, Nina has moved down the road but not out of Linda’s life—they have continued their friendship and enhanced it by joining Spectrum’s Mentoring Program.
Joining a mentoring program has allowed this pair to participate in several organized mentoring activities like the National Mentoring Month celebration at Memorial Auditorium last January and our program’s annual beach party in July. Other activities the two enjoy include shopping, movies, eating out, and spending time together on the golf course. Most of all though, Linda and Nina take great pleasure in talking to each other and having time where they can each listen and be listened to.
CONGRATULATIONS again on being matched for one year!
Linda never considered any kind of volunteer work with young people, but then one day the girl who lived next door “plunked herself down on my couch, we’ve been friends ever since.” Nina clearly chose Linda as her surrogate grandmother—being neighbors made it very easy to hang out with each other often. Since then, Nina has moved down the road but not out of Linda’s life—they have continued their friendship and enhanced it by joining Spectrum’s Mentoring Program.
Joining a mentoring program has allowed this pair to participate in several organized mentoring activities like the National Mentoring Month celebration at Memorial Auditorium last January and our program’s annual beach party in July. Other activities the two enjoy include shopping, movies, eating out, and spending time together on the golf course. Most of all though, Linda and Nina take great pleasure in talking to each other and having time where they can each listen and be listened to.
CONGRATULATIONS again on being matched for one year!
Monday, August 4, 2008
Hats Off to Summer
Here we are in August and it feels so much as though summer just got started. I guess that's the way it goes in Vermont. I hope you've enjoyed nice weather outings with your matches, tried a few new things, and simply had fun with a young person.
I wanted to take this chance to fill you in on some of the goings on with Spectrum Mentoring. This Thursday the 7th is Deborah Lewis' last day here with us at Spectrum. She has accepted a position teaching middle school students in Honduras and leaves the 8th on that adventure. If you haven't had a chance to wish her well, feel free to be in touch with her this week.
I (Deanna) will be on vacation from Aug. 11-Aug 27. If you have any pressing needs while I'm gone, you can contact my supervisor, Joan White at extension 330 or jwhite@spectrumvt.org. She will, however, be out of the office Aug. 25th and 26th so for those two days, Mark Redmond is your best contact at extension 209 or mredmond@spectrumvt.org. Hopefully there won't be too many pressing issues while I'm gone!
On September 9th, I will have a social work student intern starting with me for the coming academic year. Her name is Nydia Guity and she hails from The Bronx. She will be learning all aspects of the volunteer/mentor program here at Spectrum so you'll all have a chance to interact with her. Alas, she will be the only other person working here with me as I did not receive an A*VISTA for the coming year.
Program News: We have 38 matches currently. I should be able to make a couple more matches very soon after my vacation. I also expect to train about 5 new mentors in September as well.
I would love to hear what you all have been up to. I'm wondering if our program again had representation in the annual Dragonboat Races as it has for the last couple of years. What a great thing to blog about--hint, hint!
Enjoy the rest of your August!
I wanted to take this chance to fill you in on some of the goings on with Spectrum Mentoring. This Thursday the 7th is Deborah Lewis' last day here with us at Spectrum. She has accepted a position teaching middle school students in Honduras and leaves the 8th on that adventure. If you haven't had a chance to wish her well, feel free to be in touch with her this week.
I (Deanna) will be on vacation from Aug. 11-Aug 27. If you have any pressing needs while I'm gone, you can contact my supervisor, Joan White at extension 330 or jwhite@spectrumvt.org. She will, however, be out of the office Aug. 25th and 26th so for those two days, Mark Redmond is your best contact at extension 209 or mredmond@spectrumvt.org. Hopefully there won't be too many pressing issues while I'm gone!
On September 9th, I will have a social work student intern starting with me for the coming academic year. Her name is Nydia Guity and she hails from The Bronx. She will be learning all aspects of the volunteer/mentor program here at Spectrum so you'll all have a chance to interact with her. Alas, she will be the only other person working here with me as I did not receive an A*VISTA for the coming year.
Program News: We have 38 matches currently. I should be able to make a couple more matches very soon after my vacation. I also expect to train about 5 new mentors in September as well.
I would love to hear what you all have been up to. I'm wondering if our program again had representation in the annual Dragonboat Races as it has for the last couple of years. What a great thing to blog about--hint, hint!
Enjoy the rest of your August!
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Match of the Month for August: Lisa Jacques and Heather
For the month of August, we are so pleased to honor Lisa Jacques and her mentee, Heather, for match of the month. On July 12th, this pair celebrated their first anniversary of being matched!
Congratulations!!!
Having benefited from mentors in her own life and seeing our program’s recruitment ad in a Fletcher Allen newsletter, Lisa decided to apply to be a mentor with Spectrum. With two teenage daughters of her own as well as having gone through her own struggles as a young person, Lisa felt uniquely qualified to provide guidance to another young woman.
Heather was working with another Spectrum program when she learned about the mentoring program. She hoped to be matched with someone fun who liked the things that she liked—swimming, movies, bowling and animals. Being a fairly active young person, she was a good match with Lisa.
Since being matched, Lisa and Heather have enjoyed going out to eat together, having their nails done, visiting pet stores, swimming and seeing movies. Heather has even begun taking classes to become a veterinary assistant. She says of Lisa, “we have things in common that we like to do.” Lisa enjoys Heather’s chattiness when they spend time together.
CONGRATULATIONS again on being matched for one year!
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
2nd Annual Mentoring Beach Party
Sorry it's taken me a couple of days to get this in the blog, but I've been so busy fielding phone calls and emails from mentors telling me how much they enjoyed the beach party on Friday. It's been so great to hear such positive reactions to the event. Alot of the credit should go to both Mark Redmond (Spectrum Ex. Dir.) and to Joan White (Dev. Dir.) for their ideas on how to bring excitement to the event in ways that would appeal to young and old alike. Having the event catered made the night stress-free for those of us putting it on and left us to simply enjoy the time with the mentors and mentees. Sugar Snap provided a wonderful spread of sandwiches and salads which allowed some of the folks there to try some new foods.
The organized games were a lot of fun, too. The water balloon toss was very exciting and a little wet. Congratulations to Brian and Simon on thier win of that event. Sally and Tabby won Spectrum's version of Match Game which was an interesting look into how well our matches know each other. Congratulations to this pair as well.
Thanks to all of you who attended and we missed those who were not able to attend. I'm really looking forward to planning next year's event!
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