Closing Out the School Year

• Bring a degree of “closure” to Mentoring. Now, this isn’t “close the door” on the relationship between the mentor and mentee, or between the mentor and the school. It is our sincere hope that mentors will both remain their student’s mentor and maintain relationships with their mentees for multiple years. But that is not always our choice: sometimes a child will move to a different school, sometimes a mentor will have an unexpected life change that makes it impossible to re-commit to an hour a week for an entire school year, etc. And there are “seasons” of a relationship in which it is natural to recognize that one phase or stage has come and another about to begin. So, consider having some kind of event, with the school’s permission, at which you invite mentors, mentees, parents of the students, and the appropriate school staff members in order to say “thank you!” to all who gave permission for us to serve and then chose to stick with us and support us.” My guess is that you’ll get more thank you’s than you give, and that both you and the school will find a greater desire to move in to the next phase than when you first planned the event.
  

• Schedule a “Teacher & Staff Appreciation” breakfast or luncheon. Some find this easiest to get on the calendar late in the school year, or on the day after the students have been dismissed for the year and teachers must return for a day. Most find this easy to get on the principal’s OK list to be held during the week of in-service immediately prior to the beginning of the school year in August. Either way, it can be as elaborate or as simple as you prefer. What matters are two things: the effort made, and the heart attitude desiring to honor them.
  

• Stay in touch over the summer! With permission of the school officials, you and the mentors do well to get the addresses of your mentees, and of members of the school staff with whom you have made a significant connect. Encourage, and participate in, occasional notes written to let them know you’re thankful for them and thinking of them. Don’t be surprised in the years to come when you discover how many of those cards and emails are kept as mementos by folks who consider evidence that someone is in their corner as a rare gift from God.