How Exactly do the Mentorship Sessions Work?

First, you reach out to us (see our Contact/Volunteer tab) on behalf of any group of youths ages 6-12 that you believe will benefit from our mentorship sessions. We typically work with after-school programs and elementary schools, but we are open to mentoring any type of kids' group ages 6-12.

Second, we schedule an one-hour mentorship session with the group at the group's after-school program, school, or any space where the group will be! Mentors will be in touch prior to the scheduled mentorship session to confirm the number of mentees anticipated at the session, what type of program the youths are especially interested in (see below), and any other logistics to ensure the mentorship session goes off without a hitch.

Third, on the date of the scheduled mentorship session, at least two MMF volunteers will be present to run the session. MMF will bring all supplies, and handle set up and clean up.

Fourth, we schedule future sessions—as one of MMF's goals is to provide positive role models to the youths we mentor, we will continue to engage the students in regular mentorship sessions.

Types of Mentorship Sessions

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is one of the most important things we teach, because mindfulness practices can be used every day. We have taught mindfulness through yoga; by making sensory bottles—powerful visual anchors for the mind during moments of high stress or sensory overload—and fidget toys, which help relieve stress and give individuals a fun way to get out energy.

Nutritional Wellness

This is many of our mentees’ favorites as who doesn't like to eat tasty food?! We begin the session by discussing how the foods one puts into their body can affect them in a good way but also a bad way. We talk about which foods have beneficial nutrients, vitamins and minerals and how those foods can help one with focus, anxiety and mood (based on the book This is Your Brain on Food by Uma Naidoo MD). We then make 1-2 recipes as a group using healthy ingredients. Afterwards, we feast!

Collaborative Physical Skill Building

One example of a collaborative, physical skill-building activity we have brought to our mentorship sessions is “Ultimate Spy”. In Ultimate Spy, two teams are made and each player gets a football flag to wear around their waist. The teams spread out over an outdoor space and the last player in the area with their flag declares victory for their team. We teach teams to work together in order to plan a strategy in which team members each serve a purpose for the benefit of the whole team, even if that means being bait to be captured! Our mentees love this physical and team-oriented game.

Makerspace

In our makerspace workshops, our goal is to unleash our mentees’ creativity through hands-on learning and imagination. Capturing youths’ imagination will enable them to notice things in the world and apply that type of flexible thinking when they are older to problem solve. Our makerspace projects are wide and vast—we have guided students to create wands, swords and armor out of cardboard, just as we did when they were their age, and taught them how to make instruments—such as guitars, maracas, drums, and harmonicas—out of ordinary household materials that can be reused (instead of being thrown away) like tissue boxes, paper towel rolls, and broken rubber bands. And we’ve taught our mentees how to build marble runs out of cardboard and discarded toilet paper rolls, celebrating them when, after the inevitable trial and error, the marble successfully careens from top to bottom.

Spontaneous Problem Solving

While our founders were competing on Odyssey of the Mind teams, we loved spontaneous problems because they would train our sharpness and collaboration. There are 3 types of spontaneous problems (verbal, hands-on, and a combination of both), and teams must solve each on the spot, requiring quick thinking, teamwork, and creative problem-solving.

Origami & Art

Origami and art, just like yoga, are practices in mindfulness. Origami involves many steps and it can get really frustrating, but we counsel our mentees to take breaths, have patience and to let go of self judgment. Our goal is to show our mentees that through patience and practice, they can achieve something really beautiful. For our art projects, we like to help our students make seasonal creations, like snowflakes with tape and water colors in December, paper plate feathered birds in Spring, and "grateful" pumpkins in the Fall.

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