Thank you to Mentors

January is National Mentoring Month, and a time to thank all of the people who have been mentors to help others in the life journey.

At Cabrini Connections we have nearly 100 volunteers and each deserves thanks for the time they volunteer as tutors/mentors, leaders, fund raisers, board members. It takes this entire team to make a this program work, not just those on the front lines as one-on-one volunteers.

However, as you reflect on National Mentoring Month, I encourage you to read the mentoring stories on the MENTOR web site. Think about all of the people who have mentored you. Our volunteers have been mentored. Our alumni were mentored, and many continue to be mentored by the adults they met when they were young, and by others who they meet now.

Visit the Alumni Update links and you can read stories of former Cabrini Connections students. We'd like to build a list of stories, like on the MENTOR.org web site and can do that if student and alumni will take a moment to submit and article.

I spend several hours every day mentoring people who are trying to build programs similar to Cabrini Connections, as well as the business and professional and university leaders who could do more to support the growth of mentoring, as a career development process, if they were more strategic in the way they use their time, talent and organizational resources.

And, I'm mentored by many people, in Chicago and from around the world, who provide information, ideas, support and friendship.

Thus, we alll have someone to thank as we reflect on what National Mentoring Month means. A writing activity for this week's tutor/mentor sessions at Cabrini Connections might be working with your student to develop a joint essay to thank all of the people who have been mentors to each of you. You can post stories about your mentor on the National Mentoring web site, and you can submit them for this blog.

Happy Mentoring Month to all of you.

Dan Bassill
President
Cabrini Connections
Tutor/Mentor Connection