Lunch Break’s Alliance for Success
By Eileen Moon
RED BANK – A program that helps juniors and seniors at Red Bank Regional High School (RBR) transition successfully to college and careers is in need of volunteer mentors.
The Alliance for Success, a program initiated by Lunch Break in collaboration with Red Bank Regional High School’s student support program, The Source, and several community partners, provides college and career preparedness workshops, life skills development and twice-monthly, one-to-one mentoring sessions to assist students as they make decisions that may impact their lives long after their school years are behind them.
“We are going into our fourth year,” said Renee Lehrman, Alliance for Success coordinator, noting that the RBR program was inspired in part by a similar, very successful life skills program at Long Branch High School.
The Alliance for Success launched its first mentorship initiative at RBR in 2021.
“We came together and started this with a pilot group of 11 or 12 students,” Lehrman said. It proved to be an immediate success. “All of (the students) graduated and went on to two- and four-year colleges.”
Now in its fourth year, the RBR program currently has 33 seniors and 11 juniors participating.
In addition to taking advantage of workshops, internships and college and career exploration, students meet twice a month with a volunteer mentor to plot their paths to college and career.
Mentors meet with their student for one hour twice a month over a two-year period, Lehrman said.
To be accepted as a mentor, individuals must be over 18, be passionate about working with youth, be willing to commit to a flexible, two-year mentorship schedule and pass a background check. “You don’t have to be a professional with a certain expertise in a certain field,” Lehrman stressed.
Someone who enjoys working with children or has a background in education would be a good fit for the mentor role. However, the Alliance also welcomes recent college graduates, Spanish speakers and parents who have gone through the college-career planning process with their own children and are ready to share what they’ve learned.
Lehrman would like to recruit 15 additional mentors.
“We really want to have mentors that are diverse – more than one race, social or economic status – anyone that can provide lived experiences. We want the mentors to reflect who we really are as a community and as a country,” noted Birgit Mondesir, Lunch Break’s Life Skills coordinator.
While the program is open to any student at RBR, it is especially valuable for those who may be the first in their family to attend college and for those who need more support than their families are able to provide due to language barriers or other challenges.
To assist parents who are non-English speakers, RBR provides translation services, eliminating a barrier that might make it difficult for a parent to support their child in planning for the next phase of their lives.
The program’s goals aren’t solely focused on college placement: working with its volunteers and community partners, the Alliance aims to expose students to a broader sense of what’s possible, introducing them to a variety of career paths that may inspire them to prepare for a trade or profession they might not otherwise have considered.
“We want to let them know that there are so many different opportunities. That gives them some really great exposure,” said Jill Gwydir-Govel, Lunch Break development director.
They are able to fund the program thanks to the generosity of donors, including Target, Zynergy Cares, Girls Friends Society, Community Hope Fund and the John Ben Snow Foundation.
They also rely on the support of community partners, including Brookdale Community College, Monmouth County Workforce Development, Count Basie Theatre, Parker Health Clinic, Woodward Construction, Smart Mondays Media Group, Lakeland Bank, iCIMS, Ocean First Bank, Tomorrow Today College Consulting and NJ Natural Gas, all of whom have provided career exploration and internship opportunities for RBR’s Alliance participants.
Thanks to an internship program hosted by the Monmouth County Vicinage, four students from the Alliance got hands-on experience in the county court system, inspiring at least one student to consider becoming a lawyer. Another student hosted by Woodward Construction discovered an interest in architecture that inspired her to explore the field in college.
At RBR, students have long taken advantage of The Source, an in-house student support and counseling center with its own therapy dog, Riley.
“The Source has identified some students from our program that may benefit from this program,” said Suzanne Keller, supervisor of The Source program at RBR.
With strong support from RBR’s guidance department, the Alliance has helped provide wraparound services that assist students in addressing practical needs, overcoming financial obstacles or resolving family challenges that may impact a student’s ability to focus on their future.
Working with mentors, students are encouraged to build life skills like time management and communication with the support of a team of adults committed to seeing the students succeed.
Career exploration, college tours, online tutoring, SAT prep, and opportunities to earn advance college credit or achieve trade certifications are among the programs students can access through the Alliance for Success – all with the support of a mentor dedicated to helping that one student succeed.
Alliance participants may also enroll in paid internships and summer jobs that can familiarize them with career opportunities they might not otherwise have considered while providing the practical help of a paycheck.
The Alliance also offers an Uber card program for students who lack transportation, enabling them to commute to and from work.
Campus visits to colleges and career training centers help students explore available opportunities they might not have considered otherwise.
Keller said students can tackle the challenges they face step-by-step through regular meetings with their mentors. Every Friday, she receives a report on how each student is progressing on their tasks so that any unmet issues can be addressed.
“The kids are really enjoying the program so much,” Keller said. “These are very motivated students.”
“Mentoring changes lives,” stressed Lehrman, noting that 90% of the mentors who signed on in 2021 are still with the program. “It’s very impactful for both (the student) and the mentor.”
To learn more about the mentorship program, contact Renee Lehrman, Alliance for Success coordinator, at 732-747- 8577 ext. 3203 or by email at rlehrman@lunchbreak.org.
The article originally appeared in the October 3 – October 9, 2024 print edition of The Two River Times.
