We kicked off our Project MALES (PM) Mentoring Program Retreat on Monday, September 3rd, 2018 with graduate student coordinators, undergraduate mentors, and staff in attendance for the day-long convening. Our students participated in a variety of interactive activities and training workshops led by Rodrigo Aguayo, Mentor Program Coordinator with support from Jorge Rodriguez, Consortium Program Coordinator, and graduate student coordinators.
Our PM Retreat began an official welcome by Dr. Emmet Campos, Project MALES Director, followed by icebreakers led by graduate coordinator Alicia Moreno that focused on team building and collaboration. Rodrigo and Jorge provided an overview of Project MALES mentor program, mentor expectations, and SEL curriculum. The Mentoring Site Coordinators ended the first half of the retreat with a discussion about the IMPACT service-learning course and the review of the course syllabus.
Dr. Victor Saenz opened the second half of the retreat also welcoming our student mentors to UT and to Project MALES. He then introduced Mr. David Lopez, Assistant Principal at Ojeda MS, to lead “School Expectations Training” workshop sharing some powerful strategies on how to interact and engage with the young men we will be mentoring this academic year, and emphasizing the importance of consistency, accountability, and demonstrating authentic forms of caring with our mentees.
We ended the day with Mentoring Site Coordinators leading mentoring scenarios with three breakout groups of mentors. Please stay tuned for future web stories this semester about our mentoring work, as we will be profiling our mentoring sites, mentoring events, and activities throughout the semester. Dr. Campos concluded the retreat with the announcement of the new Project MALES Maymester Study Abroad class in Mexico City. We will share more information on at our first fall semester Plática on September 24.
