From: The Journal of the Kansas Bar Association, vol. 68, no. 4 (April 1999), p. 14, 24.
Permission to make this article available through Washburn Law School web site granted. All rights reserved.
The KBA web site is at http://www.ksbar.org.
Jennifer Koepke was waiting to meet Monica. One of a group of nearly 20 Washburn University law students recruited by the Black Law Student Association (BLSA) last fall, Koepke had joined the other law students gathered in a room at Topeka High School. Koepke could only wonder about the name she had on a piece of paper in her hands. But she could not have been any more curious than the high school students who soon entered the room, talking in small groups. Both the law student mentors and the teens wondered, "Who would be their match?"
Jacquelyn Mindell, immediate past president of BLSA, originally submitted the idea of a mentoring program to the BLSA membership. Mindell then met with the principal of Topeka High School, Dr. Patty Pressman, who asked Lesia Carter and Rene Valdivia, THS social workers, to help with selection of high school students they believed would benefit from the program.
"We first asked for volunteers from the BLSA membership," Mindell said. Mentors were asked to commit to their match for the school year, or longer, if both parties wanted to continue. After talking with the THS administrators, it became clear that BLSA would not have enough members to meet the need. So BLSA sent an e-mail call for help to the entire student body. Jennifer Koepke was among the law students who responded.
THS students were identified and Mindell met with them to explain the program. The teens were told that requesting a mentor was their choice. Most decided they wanted to. To kick off the project, BLSA provided cookies and punch for a meeting at the high school to match the mentors and teens. After introductions, the pairs had 30 to 40 minutes to talk and get to know each other.
Koepke said she found that her match, 14 year-old Monica, was very outgoing and smart. Koepke began phoning Monica every week and when she found out that Monica played on one of the school's basketball teams, she made arrangements to attend one of her games. Since then she and Monica have met at a fast-food restaurant near the school a couple of times. Koepke said that in one way, her background and Monica's are opposites.
"She is very adult," Koepke said, "she tells me things I didn't even know at her age. ... she's got a lot of street sense though, common sense."
Koepke said that since Monica's parents give her a lot of freedom, what to do with that time and what Monica's goals might be, are among the issues Monica and Koepke talk about. Monica is unsure if she will go to college, another issue they have discussed. Koepke said Monica is open and honest and that her thoughts and concerns come out easily in conversation.
"She didn't think I would judge her, and I didn't," Koepke said.
While Koepke said she thinks mentoring is a good outlet for students immersed in law school "24 hours a day, seven days a week," she has other, more important, reasons for being involved. Koepke said she thinks it is important for people to be well rounded and to keep their minds open to people in other circumstances.
"Instead of being around the people who think the same, talk the same and act the same," Koepke said, "being involved in a mentoring program keeps me aware of what's going on out there."
Koepke is an only child, whose parents are both physicians. In all of her mentoring and community service experiences, Koepke said she downplays her economic background, not wanting to be stereotyped before a relationship can begin.
Koepke said the mentoring program helps her to value diverse types of people and their experiences and to keep an open mind about differences in economic or educational levels. Being a mentor helps influence how a person ends up seeing these things, Koepke said.
Instead of complaining about what is wrong with the world, someone involved in mentoring can do something about it, Koepke said. "They can see why other people act the way they do. They can begin to understand."
"We did ask [the mentors] to have the willingness and ability to listen to the high school students and find out what their needs were," Mindell said.
Some needed tutoring in math, science or reading. Others wanted someone who would attend some of their sporting events and otherwise spend time with them. Mindell said that the amount of time committed by mentors during the match was less important than what they offer in that time. "Some just wanted someone older they could trust enough to share what was happening in their lives," Mindell said. As with Big Brothers/Big Sisters, BLSA organizers emphasized with mentors the need to follow through if they made a commitment to a teen.
"We talked about some of the issues and problems high school students have," Mindell said. She stressed the need to treat high school students as young adults, not as peers or adults. Both mentors and teens were told that the law students were not there to give legal advice.
The goal of the BLSA mentoring program is to provide positive role models, Mindell said, to expose minority and other high school students to individuals who will soon be legal professionals. Many teens are familiar with the justice system but not from this viewpoint, she said. They or their friends and acquaintances may have been involved with the police or the courts, but hardly ever with a good outcome.
"We wanted to show them that minorities, particularly African Americans, have other alternatives," Mindell said. "Many of the teens had never even heard of Washburn University School of Law." Mindell said that getting involved with the community can be beneficial to law students.
"Many law students don't ever think about getting too far outside the boundaries of our school," Mindell said. "Too often we get caught up in the all-important process of getting through law school and forget that there are people on the outside who need us. We're about to go into an extremely powerful profession and need to get used to the idea of using our skills to help others."
While the project organizers have not yet done a formal evaluation, they plan to get together with the high school at the end of the year to determine the program's success. Because mentors and high school students were mostly on their own this year, project organizers are considering having more extensive training for mentors in the future.
"We don't actually need huge numbers to be successful. If we get one kid who says she wants to go to law school because of her mentor," Mindell said, "or if we get one teenager ... that feels he has someone he can look up to as a role model, we will have succeeded."
Some THS students are reporting about the experience to their counselor. Mindell said she plans a meeting soon to check up on their response. BLSA is also in the process of determining what to do about "unsuccessful" matches.
The number of meetings for mentors may need to increase next year in order to keep track of issues that come up, Mindell said. Concerned about asking law students to commit to more meetings, project organizers this year decided it was more important for mentors to spend that time with their students.
There are some kinks that need to be worked out, but Mindell said she sees this as an ongoing project. If BLSA could get enough volunteers, it could expand to other high schools or middle schools.
For those who say they don't have enough time, Koepke, who has mentored and done other types of community service in the past, has a message. She said people should be selective and think about the quality of the time they are giving, not how much. Being a mentor is one way to choose something to do that is meaningful, she said, something that can affect another person's life directly.
Koepke, whose husband is also a law student, noted that like her, some law students have no job responsibilities while in school and no parenting responsibilities. She said she would like to influence those people, and other law students, to give some time and make a commitment to someone younger who needs an outstretched hand.
"This is a time in your life that you can give," she said.