February 11, 2005
Take the Lead! Invites Student Mentors to Apply
 Mount
Holyoke students wishing to hone their leadership skills and work
with some of the brightest and most highly motivated female high
school students in the country are invited to apply to become
mentors in the College's Take the Lead program. Take the Lead
will bring a select group of high school juniors to campus for
a four-day leadership conference September 29 through October
2. Now entering its sixth year, the conference includes workshops,
activities, and guest speakers.
Mount Holyoke leadership
mentors benefit from the experience as much as the high school
students do. According to Take the Lead founding director Patricia
VandenBerg, MHC's executive director of communications and strategic
initiatives, "High school participants always comment that
having an MHC mentor is one of the best things about the program.
The mentors, in turn, say working with the participants gives
them hope and inspiration. It's synergistic. All of us lucky enough
to be involved benefit."
Claudia Calhoun '05,
who served as a mentor last year, recalled her experience: "Take
the Lead is a really amazing program. Even though my name tag
read ‘mentor,' I was as much a student as the high schoolers there.
I learned so much about organizing and activism during that weekend
-- from Patricia VandenBerg and the other speakers and, most importantly,
from the students themselves. I was inspired by their ideas, their
enthusiasm, and their drive. I wish that I had been offered in
high school the tools and the encouragement that Take the Lead
provides for its participants."
After receiving special
training, each mentor will be paired with one of the high school
students based on shared interests. As part of the conference,
mentors will host Take the Lead students in their residence halls
and accompany them to some of their scheduled activities. During
the conference, each Take the Lead student will develop a project
that addresses an issue of particular concern to her. Past projects
have involved reducing voter apathy, creating a Web site offering
minority students information on scholarships and the college
application process, and stopping the abuse of Cambodian children
by Western sex tourists.
Mentors will work
one-on-one with the students to develop projects and planning
strategies. After the conference, many mentors choose to keep
in touch with their students, continuing their supportive relationship
via email. All mentors will receive a gift certificate for the
Odyssey Bookshop.
Susan Pliner, associate
director of the Weissman Center for Leadership and the Liberal
Arts for the Speaking, Arguing, and Writing (SAW) Program, heads
up Take the Lead's mentor recruitment and training process. "I
am continually inspired and impressed by MHC students who become
Take the Lead mentors. They are amazing women who are creative,
imaginative, inquisitive, encouraging, compassionate, intelligent—and,
most of all, leaders."
How to Apply
All MHC students who will be on campus next fall and are committed
to developing their own leadership skills and those of others
are invited to apply to become a Take the Lead mentor. This year,
applications are available online at www.mtholyoke.edu/go/saw,
and students are strongly encouraged to use this convenient method.
Applications, which are due by February 25, are also available
and may be handed in at the SAW office in 103 Porter Hall. Interviews
will be held the first week of March. Students will be notified
whether they have been selected for the program by March 7. Fifteen
alternates will also be chosen. Those selected to become mentors
and alternates are required to attend a half-day training session
September 24.
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