Mentoring at Alta Vista

Written by Linda Waud

Each year at Alta Vista High School we have approximately 40 mentors who participate in a
program sponsored by Partners for New Generations. Our volunteers come to us hoping they
will be able to help a teenager through the varied difficulties faced by young people.

It has clear that the mentors receive as much from their students as they give. Evidence of this is
found in the December 11, 2009 issue of The Mountain View Voice. In this issue, Tuck Younis,
Police Chief of Los Altos, said that he tries to be a sounding board for his mentee, an 18 year
old interested in police work. They talk about the student’s goals and aspirations, as well as the
challenges he faces as he grows up. Younis jokes that he may get more out of the program than
his mentee. Mentoring helps him see intervention in a new light.

Many of the mentors come to PNG feeling that they have worked hard all their lives, earned
a living, and been successful with their own family. Now they are ready to share their life
experiences and care for human kind to help someone who needs extra support and care in their
lives.

In addition to the gratification mentors experience, they learn a lesson in humanity which is that
everyone has some goodness in them. They become aware that nurturing our students truly helps
the world become a better place.

Alta Vista students become ambassadors to the community, speaking yearly at Rotary meetings,
imparting information through many written articles and interviews, and spreading the benefits
of mentoring as new students enroll at their school.

This Partners For New Generations (PNG) mentoring program at Alta Vista which started in
1997 has become so successful, it has been used as a pilot and spread to the other two high
schools in the community: Mountain View and Los Altos High Schools.

Linda Waud, Psy.D.
Coordinator-Mentoring Program
Partners for New Generations
Alta Vista High School