““How to Be a Great Mentor’’ was conceived following the 1997 Presidents’ Summit for America’s Future chaired by Gen. Colin Powell. In the run-up to the summit, corporations were invited to pledge their help. NEWSWEEK chronicled those pledges in a recurring feature in our PERISCOPE section, and spotlighted the summit on our cover (April 28, 1997). But we weren’t content to observe from the sidelines: Editor-in-Chief Richard M. Smith and Kaplan president Jonathan Grayer saw a chance to combine the magazine’s and Kaplan’s areas of expertise to show others how to get involved. The result is a practical guide to making mentoring work, with stories about successful mentoring relationships, inspiration from concerned celebrities like basketball player Grant Hill and writer John Updike, and specific tips on the how, where and why of getting started.
The last–why mentor?–is the simplest to answer. There are an estimated 13.6 million young Americans (under 18) who seem headed for trouble, roughly half of whom are termed ““very high risk’’ for delinquency, substance abuse and underachievement at school. One recent study showed that kids with mentors were nearly half as likely to use drugs and twice as likely to attend class than those without. As NEWSWEEK columnist Jonathan Alter writes in the issue’s introduction, ““Mentors not only touch someone’s life, they have the potential to touch and change the life of the nation.’’ Many NEWSWEEK and Kaplan employees have discovered the power of mentoring firsthand. We hope ““How to Be a Great Mentor’’ reflects the satisfactions that helping these young people can bring.
The issue can be ordered by calling 1-800-272-8306 or 703-803-8171. You can also find information at the National Mentoring Partnership’s Web site at www.mentoring.org.
