After a year of providing virtual mentoring for the 2020-2021 academic year, the Project MALES Student Mentoring Program has returned to delivering in-person mentoring for the Fall 2021 semester at middle schools and high schools in Austin Independent School District (AISD). Our semester kick-off began with a welcoming to our young men, team-building energizers, mentor matching activities, and food to celebrate the launch of another year of mentoring.
This year, Project MALES is excited to announce the expansion to 3 new additional school sites: Covington Middle School, Crockett Early College High School, and the Alternative Learning Center, for a total of 13 school sites. We also added Kealing Middle School as a new mentoring site. We are proud of our mentor team of 55 University of Texas at Austin college students who are going to sites weekly, supporting young men of color using the guiding frameworks of critical mentoring, Social-Emotional Learning, and Restorative Practices. In the upcoming weeks, mentors will facilitate curriculum based on Project MALES 5 pillars: Brotherhood; Identity; Health and Wellness; Leadership; and College and Career Readiness; and offer near-peer mentorship to our K-12 students. Through critical mentoring, Project MALES focuses on improving the success of close to 200 young men of color in and outside of the classroom.
Our mentoring program could not have happened without the hard work of our 4 graduate students, Gabriel Martinez, Julio J. Mena Bernal, Celine Norman, and Lesley Rivas. Our graduate students are supported by our mentoring coordinator, Rodrigo Aguayo, our AISD support, and points of contact at each school site. We look forward to mentoring and building community with our young men of color this semester and to kick-off another successful year serving students across the educational pipeline.
