Mentors lend listening ear and provide compassion for students in need

SHALLOTTE—It only takes 30 minutes one day a week to make a difference.

PHOTO CONTRIBUTED

Brunswick Community College baseball team members Tyler Barnes, Jay Cannon and Tyler Ruffin eat lunch with Shallotte Middle School students Carlton Sturdivant and Jacob Cosentino. Baseball team members are among the adult mentors who spend time with Shallotte Middle School students in need of a listening ear.

Brad Ferguson uses his 30 minutes simply to lend a listening ear and provide a sense of stability to his seventh-grade lunch buddy.

Laura Chaney said hers is used to talk with her sixth-grade buddy and show she truly cares about her.

As part of the Communities in Schools of Brunswick County, Inc. Action for Success program, adult volunteers serve as mentors for middle-school students.

Action for Success is a dropout prevention program at Shallotte, Cedar Grove and Leland middle schools, said Ardith Shaw, success coach coordinator at Shallotte Middle School.

Shaw helps conduct case managements on students in need and can refer them to counseling, tutoring and other services as needed.

She also helps pair students with volunteer adult mentors who come to the school once a week during lunchtime and serve as the student’s lunch buddy.

“They’re really important,” Shaw said. “A lot of these kids do not have positive role models in their lives. They need someone who can encourage them, talk to them about college.”

Ferguson, a pastor at New Beginnings Christian Church, said he talks to his buddy about his involvement within his church.

“We try to connect on that level,” he said.

But most conversations center around the student’s daily experiences at school.

“Giving him somebody positive in his life that will encourage him,” Ferguson said. “Keep reminding he can do this and he is capable.”

Ferguson said he became a mentor because he knows there are students without family or parental support or who come from broken homes. Although it’s only 30 minutes a week, he felt he might be able to provide some of what’s missing at home.

“They like to have an adult there who cares about them and can spend time with them,” he said. “I just take time to care about his life.”

Chaney said she has a heart for middle-school students, as she has a sixth- and eighth-grader at home. She thought it was a good opportunity to reach out to a child who might be in need.

Chaney’s sixth-grade buddy often talks about her passion for cooking and has expressed an interest in working with children in the future. Chaney helps her realize in order to achieve her goal, she needs to stay on the right track and make good decisions.

“With kids you never know,” she said. “You plant maybe a few seeds and you hope somewhere down the road they get watered.”

Shaw said although lunch buddies come by the school once a week for 30 minutes, it’s one of the students’ weekly highlights.

“They look forward to the mentors coming once a week, they really do,” Shaw said. “They look forward to it, they ask.”

And so do the mentors.

“I make sure that I go every week,” Ferguson said. “I go because I want to be there in his life at least for those 30 minutes every week.”

Additional volunteers are needed to mentor Shallotte Middle School students. All mentors must attend a two-hour CIS training session and pass a criminal background check. If interested, contact Shaw at 754-6882.

“There are so many people who can give 30 minutes, it’s really not asking a lot,” Ferguson said.