Preparing for Excellence: Mentoring African American Girls to Encourage Positive Academic, Interpersonal, and Vocational Outcomes

Format

Individual Presentation

Presenters

Tera R. ReidFollow

First Presenter's Institution

Transforming Other's Potential, Inc.

Second Presenter's Institution

NA

Third Presenter's Institution

NA

Fourth Presenter's Institution

NA

Fifth Presenter's Institution

NA

Location

Vernon

Strand #1

Social & Emotional Skills

Strand #2

Family & Community

Relevance

This workshop relates to the Heart and Home conference strands. Mentoring is a strategy that comes from the heart with the desire of improving outcomes for the social and emotional needs of young people. It also relates to the home strand by utilizing community resources to assist young people in becoming successful.

Brief Program Description

African American girls face significant barriers to educational and personal success. Mentoring has been shown to have a positive effect among youth. This workshop will explore the interventions of a mentoring program in Georgia.

This workshop targets anyone interested in practical solutions. Participants will be empowered and engaged to learn specific strategies, interventions, and develop solutions of their own.

Summary

African American girls face significant disparities in regards to educational and personal success. The school suspension rates of black girls are six times that of their white female counterparts. Statistics have continually shown that higher rates of suspension lead to lower rates of academic achievement. In addition, racial and gender stereotypes are also hindrances to the success of African American girls. With the disparities in lower academic achievement, as well as racial and gender bias, African American girls are more likely to fail to attain educational and long term achievement.

Mentoring has been shown to have positive effects on outcomes among youth participants in the areas of social, emotional, behavioral, and academic growth. This workshop will explore the research based and best practices interventions of a mentoring program implemented as a result of a partnership between a community agency and a high school in Conyers, Georgia.

Workshop participants will have the opportunity to interface with mentoring program administrators and learn effective strategies and practices with African American girls. Participants will learn specific methods utilized by facilitators in a mix of group and individual mentoring. Participants will also acquire the techniques used for ensuring student participants acquire academic success, interpersonal development, and vocational exposure. In addition, participants will learn the challenges experienced by program administrators and methods used to overcome them to ensure participant achievement.

It is the desire of the facilitators to inspire workshop participants to utilize mentoring to improve outcomes among their own students. Facilitators will share results of data acquired, areas for growth and development, funding resources, and a practical approach to everyday individuals creating solutions to a global problem. Participants can expect to be entertained as well as empowered to utilize their own skills, resources, and strategies to bring about positive changes for African American girls in their own communities.

Evidence

African American girls are subjected to significant educational and gender disparities in education and access to opportunities. Long term, these disparities lead to discouraging economic outcomes. In addition to issues related to stereotyping and perception, a variety of other factors — such as under-resourced schools; unequal access to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) learning opportunities; overly punitive school discipline practices; sexual harassment, violence, and trauma; the challenges of early pregnancy and parenting; and discrimination by school personnel — systematically operate to disproportionately push African American girls out of school and into the juvenile justice system and low-wage occupations. (NAACP Legal Defense Fund : Defend, Educate, Empower. (n.d.). Retrieved August 28, 2016, from http://www.naacpldf.org/publication/unlocking-opportunity-african-american-girls-call-action-educational-equity).

Mentoring relationships are widely accepted as positive for youth of all backgrounds and abilities, and have been identified as a key tool by corporations, nonprofits, and government entities to help young people reach their full potential. In addition, mentoring has been shown to encourage higher educational outcomes and participation in positive development activities. (The Mentoring Effect. (n.d.). Retrieved August 28, 2016, from http://www.mentoring.org/program-resources/mentor-resources-and-publications/the-mentoring-effect/)

Biographical Sketch

Tera Reid has been a social worker advocating for disadvantaged youth and families for 20 years. She is the CEO/Founder of Transforming Other’s Potential, Inc. In this role, she provides staff development training and consulting to local agencies serving youth as well as interactive workshops and mentoring for adolescents and young adults.

Ms. Reid has a bachelor of social work degree from North Carolina A&T State University, as well as a master of social work degree from Clark Atlanta University. She has recently published her first book entitled, Dream Haters: Tips for Young Dreamers on Achieving While Avoiding the Haters.

Keyword Descriptors

Mentoring, African American Girls, Academic Support, Interpersonal Development, Vocational, Community

Presentation Year

2017

Start Date

3-7-2017 8:30 AM

End Date

3-7-2017 9:45 AM

Recommended Citation

Reid, Tera R., "Preparing for Excellence: Mentoring African American Girls to Encourage Positive Academic, Interpersonal, and Vocational Outcomes" (2017). National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference. 20.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/nyar_savannah/2017/2017/20