January Mentor of the Month

Jeannette Guerra

Jeannette decided she wanted to mentor after watching how the program made an impact on her son.  Being the mother of two boys she looked forward to mentoring a young girl, and due to her lifelong passion of working with kids she was very excited to spend time with a child in need.  

In January 2011, Jeannette was introduced to her mentee, a painfully shy little girl in 3rd grade.  Her mentee is the only girl in her family, and lives with three brothers. Her parents are divorced and work hard to support their kids, so they don’t always have time for them.  Because of her situation, Jeannette’s mentee was very withdrawn and quiet, unused to getting much one on one attention that didn’t involve rough housing with her brothers.  She was getting in trouble at school for not turning in her homework and desperately needed to work on her social skills.  While Jeannette’s mentee was characteristically quiet during their match meeting she quickly started to warm up with every meeting until now, over a year later, Jeannette can't get her to stop talking!

Over the past year, Jeannette and her mentee have participated in various activities, including talking about the importance of school and working on homework, to going to the beach with Jeannette’s family and coming to as many program events as they possibly could.  Jeannette worked with her on so many different areas, provided unconditional support, and cherished every moment she got to spend with her mentee.  Through Jeannette’s amazing warmth and commitment, her mentee has blossomed in one short year. We all look forward to seeing how much they will continue to grow together! Thank you for everything you do, Jeannette, and congratulations for being our January mentor of the month!  You deserve it!