Zachary Hawkins knows that “the importance of mentorship in helping shift the future course of our most precious resources is greater than ever.”
—
In his State of the Union Address President Obama called for service organizations and corporations to join his initiative to create opportunity pathways for underserved youth. At a time when barely half of all African American students graduate high school and just 14 percent of Black junior high-schoolers read at or above grade level, the importance of mentorship in helping shift the future course of our most precious resources is greater than ever.
Thinking back on my own background and experiences growing up, I reflect on the significant personal and academic challenges I faced and how confused I was over how to conquer them. My father was not a prominent presence in my life and my mother, who did the best she could as a single parent raising sons with little support, suffered from depression all throughout my childhood. The conditions of my home climate, in conjunction with the myriad challenges I encountered coming up in a resource-starved environment, felt like a ball of confusion and hopelessness hanging over my shoulders. Although I felt a strong desire and determination to succeed there was no shortage of threats in my every day habitat to the bright future I dared to envision.
Sadly this is an unfortunate reality for a significant portion of America’s young who are growing up in environments where access to quality academic and career opportunities is rapidly dissolving or barely ever existed. The places and institutions that once offered safe and productive spaces for learning and self-discovery to take place, such as public schools, libraries, after-school programs, neighborhood recreation centers, sports, art and cultural facilities, are now being divested or altogether diminished as a result of widespread economic strain.
Now as an adult as well as a father, husband and mentor to others, I do not take for granted what my life’s trajectory could have been had mentorship not taken on such a prominent role at the right time. Due to the lack of sufficient home-based guidance and support, a significant part of my growth and development was influenced by teachers, coaches and mentors who helped me to realize my full potential, set concrete goals and develop an actual action plan for accomplishing my dreams.
In 2010, inspired by my experiences as both a mentor and mentee, I founded ten2one, a national youth leadership and success cultivation organization. Based on the belief that the destiny of ten can be positively impacted when one emerges to lead them, ten2one focuses on meeting students, specifically young men of color, where they are now academically and developmentally, and works with them, their parents or caretakers and teachers to create manageable plans that encourage long-term self-sufficiency and success.
In mentorship, or any form of leadership for that matter, one is called upon to help others see and bring out the best in themselves, which is why our framework focuses on self-discovery as the primary component. At ten2one we lay everything out for our students by supplying them with a framework, resource materials and a planner to help track and evaluate their own progress. By nurturing and cultivating the raw talent and potential we and others see, students eventually cannot help but to realize it within themselves.
Using an original research-aligned Blueprint Success Framework™ ten2one’s team of youth mentors, coaches, and program facilitators leads students through a multi-faceted process that focuses on uncovering their natural abilities and strengthening critical life skills. Through a series of group discussions, workshops and projects, as well as a keen emphasis on three core components – Self-Discovery, Success Planning, and Personal Development – we strive to empower youth to self-examine and self-motivate, prepare their own success strategies, and healthily engage with their families, communities, and each other.
One of ten2one’s ultimate objectives is to link students from our program with mentors across the globe, completely unbounded by geography. Next month at the annual ASCD conference in Los Angeles, we will be officially launching synXup™, a mentorship-focused social media network that will connect young people-in-need with mentors who have the desire to provide caring, meaningful, and sustainable support. By leveraging social media and technology for the greater good, we envision synXup as being a safe and highly effective vehicle for students, parents, mentors, and educators to facilitate a long-term cycle of success, one with the potential to have profound generational impact.
Being a change agent and leader of an organization that has change agents out there helping young people make their transformations, it feels like I’ve finally stepped into my vision and who I was meant to become. I can now truly recognize that my God-given assignment in life is to help others along the journey to fulfill theirs.
♦◊♦
Zachary Hawkins is a business executive, mentor, motivational speaker, and author of Statistics to Success: Four Priorities Single Mothers Can Champion to Raise Successful Sons (The Bodhi Collective, 2011). In 2010 he founded ten2one, a national youth leadership and success cultivation organization.
Follow ten2one on Twitter, or at Facebook
**Editors note: Christopher “Flood The Drummer” Norris has curated all of these stories from the mentors in his community for a special a series on mentoring. After the series is complete all of the essays will be made into a book by TechbookOnline.
Source: TBO Inc®
Twitter: @therealTBOInc
Facebook: /therealTBOInc
©2014 All Rights Reserved.
—
Feature Photo: Will Folsom/Flickr