STRIVE

PBHA’s STRIVE is a mentoring program for teenagers with sickle cell disease. The full acronym stands for Sickle cell Teens Raising awareness, Initiating change, Voicing opinions, and Empowering themselves. The full name encapsulates the values of the program. We aim to build a support network for teenagers to help them cope with chronic pain, foster confidence and self-advocacy, and guide students towards an auspicious future. We aim to do this through close one-on-one and group relationships with a focus on education and healthcare. For more information, contact Joseph Stujenske (jmstujen@fas.harvard.edu) and me, Melissa Alexander (lmalexan@fas.harvard.edu).

Recent Immigrant Term Enrichment (RITE)

PBHA’s RITE is a weekly tutoring program that serves high school students from Boston’s diverse and ever-increasing immigrant populations, including students from places like Haiti, Cuba, Somalia, El Salvador, China, and Afghanistan. The program pairs Harvard undergraduates with high school students in need of help with English skills, SAT preparation, or other academic subjects. What makes RITE a unique program is the type of students we cater to: high school students, ages 15-21, who have been in the U.S. anywhere from 1 month to 7 years. Many of these young adults are expected to perform well in high school, to attend college, or to work - all right alongside their American peers, and RITE helps them prepare. Tutors and tutees meet weekly on either Thursday or Saturday. Thursday sessions take place at a Eritrean Community Center near Cambridge 4pm to 6pm, and Saturday sessions take place here at Harvard for any 2 hours between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. (RITE meets students at the Harvard Square T-stop, and program then takes place in the Science Center.) RITE also conducts a college conference for high school seniors in the fall and is planning on publishing a literary magazine featuring student work this spring. Please contact director Danai Chagwedera (rite.harvard@gmail.com) with any questions. RITE hopes to continue this tradition of guidance to the high school immigrant population. We need your passion and dedication!

Mission Mentor

formerly Project Umoja

The purpose of PBHA’s Mission Mentor is to foster one-on-one relationships between Mission Hill youth and area university students and graduates in order to broaden children’s access and exposure to the resources in Boston and beyond. Through encouragement and friendship, Mission Mentor strives to increase the confidence and optimism with which youth approach their own education and future. For more information, please contact Theo Skeadas (skeadas@fas).

LEADERS!

PBHA’s Leaders! is the summer Junior Counselor program of the PBHA Summer Urban Programs (SUP). Leaders! offers community leadership opportunities for high school aged youth in the Boston and Cambridge. The program emphasizes youth power and action through an intensive service-learning curriculum, bringing together youth from Boston’s many communities to make positive change in their City. Leaders! also focuses on providing a personal support plan for college access for each junior counselor. For more information, please contact Seth Pearce (spearce@fas.harvard.edu) or Tara Venkatraman (tvenkatr@fas.harvard.edu).

Keylatch Mentor

PBHA’s Keylatch Mentor’s mission is to serve the middle-school-aged children in Boston’s South End, at a time in their lives when they are starting to make important life choices and to see themselves and the world around them in new ways. We strive to serve as resources for them during the confusing, overwhelming, and often traumatic years that constitute early adolescence (particularly in the low-income inner city); we hope to fulfill our mission by providing them with both academic assistance and access to new environments and experiences. Mentors meet with their mentees (who are predominantly Latino and black) independently once a week for a few hours, during which time they go on specially planned outings and/or engage in tutoring. The programmatic focus of these weekly meetings is tailored to fit the individual mentee’s needs, as told to the mentor by the mentee and his or her parents (and as determined by the mentor, once he or she comes to know the mentee). We go on fun group outings twice a semester as well! If you’re interested in building a profound relationship with an incredible child, please contact Evan Hoese (eghoese@gmail.com) or Liza Pincus (liza.e.pincus@gmail.com).

Franklin Teen Mentoring

Franklin Teen Mentoring brings together college students and Dorchester teenagers, ages 12 to 16, to build positive, mentoring relationships that empower youth to succeed in school and other endeavors, while engaging with their community. Franklin Teen provides a free, firmly established, and constructive after school program in a community where there is a general lack and fragmentation of social services, especially for youth. We work with teens from two housing developments (Franklin Hill and Franklin Field) divided by turf-based issues to forge friendship and understanding. Mentors act as role models, offering friendship, support and guidance, and access to key resources. Franklin Teen meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4 to 7pm including travel time. Mentors can come both days or choose one. We also go on about four field trips every semester and highly encourage volunteers to attend at least two of the trips. No experience is necessary for Franklin Teen; we are just looking for dedicated people who are excited about mentoring teens! If you’re interested please contact Kreg at kmoccia@fas.harvard.edu, Kevin at kcporter@fas.harvard.edu, or Tiana at thwill@fas.harvard.edu.

Chinatown Teen

As a Chinatown Teen counselor, you will have the opportunity be an influence in a middle schooler’s life through interacting with them in a group environment. Teens are encouraged to develop relationships with both the counselors and their fellow teens through a two hour program on Tuesdays and Thursdays, as well as various field trips throughout the semester. Regular program consists of a mixture of homework time and a fun and skill building project designed to foster maturity, creativity, leadership, teamwork, and responsibility. The time commitment is one to two hours per week. For more information, please contact Joan How (cjhow@fas) or Chen Yan (cyan@fas).

CHANCE

CHANCE is a college preparatory program which strives to give students from Cambridge’s only public high school the desire, support, and motivation to gain admission to college and to succeed there and beyond. We tutor students from Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, focusing primarily on SAT tutoring, homework help, and college application advising. With a diverse range of students, our program also runs occasional workshops on the SAT and the college application process. We meet for two hours a week at Harvard (currently Mondays from 3-5 pm), working one-on-one or in small groups with CRLS students in grades 9-12. Please visit our website (http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~chance) or email us (chance@hcs.harvard.edu) if you are interested in making a positive impact on a high school student’s life as a mentor, an adviser, and a role model.

Cambridge 1-2-1

Cambridge 1-2-1’s mission is to connect Harvard undergraduates to high school students at the Community Charter School of Cambridge (CCSC) through one-on-one mentoring. Each mentor-mentee pair meets on a schedule that they determine, and attends our monthly program-wide outings to restaurants, colleges, etc. Mentors with 1-2-1 serve as big brothers/sisters as well as personal and academic advisers for their mentees and are widely perceived as hugely valuable influences by both students and faculty at CCSC . Please contact Devon Stewart (devon.marie.stewart@gmail.com) and Stephanie McCartney (mccartney@fas) for more information.

BRYE (Boston Refugee Youth Enrichment) Teen

The Boston Refugee Youth Enrichment is dedicated to helping Southeast Asian refugee children adapt and flourish in an environment which offers them few resources. Our children, ages 6-16, live in Dorchester, where there is a large Vietnamese immigrant population. BRYE strives to meet the needs of the community through tutoring and mentoring programs.

BRYE Teen is a program for 12-17 year-old multi-ethnic immigrant youth in Dorchester. Teen has a different focus—not just academics or mentoring, but also youth development and empowerment/diversity training. We meet every Saturday from 3-5 in Dorchester, and we do lots of discussion groups, enrichment activities, and the like with the goal of fostering self-expression and confidence. Last year, we explored the themes of art, community, and biography through various projects, including a service project at the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter. Each semester, we like to bring something unique to our mentees. Our volunteers build long-lasting relationships with the teens, and also gain facilitation skills, as we take turns leading the discussion groups and activities. Your talents, ideas and creativity are an important part of the program! Please contact Phoung Tran (phuongtran25@gmail.com) or Sarah Siegel (ssiegel@wellesley.edu) for more information.