With a number of youth summer programs fast approaching, the J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development conducted the 2017 Fanning Youth Summer Programs Mentor Training on April 18.
During the training session, the mentors learned about UGA’s policies and requirements for working with youth and managing risk, and they also were taught best practices for mentors.
Fanning Institute Public Service Associate Carolina Darbisi said the training prepares the college student mentors to be much more than a chaperone to the campers.
“They are going to be the role models for these youth, and they have such a short time to make a big impression,” said Darbisi. “It’s providing that space for them to be role models and inspire the high schoolers to go to college, relate to the high schoolers about what it took for them to get to college.”
Darbisi said the mentor training and serving as a mentor also develops leadership skills in the college students.
These college students who have gone through the training will serve as mentors for the youth summer programs that will take place in June and July at the Fanning Institute.
Those programs include Leadership Without Limits, College Bound, and the Destination Dawgs Summer Leadership Institute.
Along with Darbisi, fellow Fanning Institute faculty and staff members David Meyers, Lori Tiller, and Kate Smith led the April 18 training session.
The mentors will undergo additional training specific to their program before it starts.