“A mentor can begin to show kids the way through.”
Those were the words of former University of Nebraska-Lincoln football coach and former U.S. Congressman Tom Osborne, Ph.D., as he made his case for the importance of joining his TeamMates Mentoring Program as a mentor for a young child. Speaking to an audience of both UNMC and Nebraska Medicine employees in the Durham Research Center, Dr. Osborne explained the origins of the program, which he and his wife started in 1991.
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For more information about the TeamMates Mentoring Program, click here.
“Having a mentor provides kids with hope,” said Dr. Osborne. “When you don’t have hope, you can’t imagine getting a college education or a good job. You fill your life with the wrong kind of stuff. If you demonstrate you care for these kids, you give them hope and show them they can achieve their dreams.”
The program matches a mentor with one student through the school the student attends. The mentor meets with the student at school once a week for 30-60 minutes and at least 24 times during a 35-week school year. Dr. Osborne said most of the mentoring sessions take place over the noon hour, which means the time the mentor spends with his or her family isn’t affected.
“I can’t tell you what a positive effect this has had on me as well as the student I mentor,” said Liz Raabe, applications senior analyst at Nebraska Medicine and current TeamMates mentor. She joined the TeamMates Mentoring Program after a friend of hers was already involved. “My student is a third grader who was struggling in school. She recently got all Bs on her report card, which was a major accomplishment for her. She also went from having attendance issues to having perfect attendance.”
Dr. Osborne closed his presentation by sharing a story about former Nebraska running back Lawrence Phillips, who, after disciplinary and legal issues both at Nebraska and during his NFL career, was found dead in his California jail cell from an apparent suicide.
“There was no one in his life he could truly count on,” said Dr. Osborne. “There are a lot of kids in Omaha in similar circumstances. Maybe it’s the girl no one will sit with or the one getting beaten up on social media, or the one who appears to have everything going for her who needs another adult in her life. We need you to sign up to be a mentor.”