For the 6th year in a row, Project MALES (PM) dedicated the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday as a day of service to honor his legacy by participating in our annual mentoring retreat. On Monday, January 15th, over 30 mentors, work-study students, University Leadership Network (ULN) interns, Project MALES staff and presenters kicked off the spring semester with a mentoring retreat to plan for the coming spring 2018 semester. Mentors, work-study students and interns participated in a variety of workshops and small group activities where they were asked to reflect and share about their own experiences as mentors and mentees.
Our UT student mentors participated in two personal development workshops led by lead interns; Ilse Colchado, Mercedes De La Cruz, Angel Ortiz, Fausto Rodriguez, Roberto Rodriguez, and Alma Rosado. Our interns led a workshop on “Restorative Circles,” one of the practices we use with our youth as part of our mentoring. Restorative Circles are implemented to build personal connection, belonging, equity, inclusive decision making, and problem solving in the schools and communities with whom we work. The second workshop was led by Brittany Gibson, Director of Recruitment and Engagement with the Relay Graduate School. Brittany engaged our students in a dialogue emphasizing social justice in the classroom, including direct practice through implementing various mentoring scenarios tying them to the teachings of MLK.
As always, our 2018 Project MALES MLK Day retreat was a great success thanks to the commitment and dedication of our mentors, work-study students, ULN interns, guest speakers, and mentoring staff to serve our middle and high school boys and men of color at AISD. Stay tuned as we will be profiling our mentoring sites, mentoring events, and activities throughout the semester and summer.
