WHEN SECRETARY OF EDUCATION CARDONA AND CELEBRITIES COME TOGETHER TO ELEVATE MENTORING, WE ALL WIN!
By: MENTOR
On Wednesday, July 14, MENTOR, along with the U.S. Department of Education and the Creative Artists Agency Foundation (CAA), held a field day event at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles to promote READY SET, a national tutor, mentor, and service recruitment campaign. The event featured U.S. Secretary of Education Dr. Miguel A. Cardona and interactive field day events led by celebrity mentoring advocates, including a dance station with TikTok and YouTube star Kylie Cantrall, and basketball clinics with Philadelphia 76ers Head Coach Doc Rivers; NBA Cares Ambassador and former NBA player Jason Collins; and former NBA player and Fairfax High School alumnus Craig Smith.
READY SET was created by CAA and the U.S. Department of Education in collaboration with leading service organizations MENTOR, VolunteerMatch, schoolhouse.world, and AmeriCorps, to meet the urgent, pandemic-driven demand to support students and educational equity. The campaign calls for volunteers to become a part of America’s student support network by tutoring, mentoring, or serving. Held during Mentor Week of the campaign, the event highlighted the critical role mentors play in providing young people with academic and personal support, particularly in this coming year as students and teachers return to the classroom. Leaders in the field called for a unified effort to create an educational system in which every student has access to direct mentoring relationships to strive and thrive.
U.S. Secretary of Education Cardona welcomed attendees and remarked on the importance of mentoring, “ … to boost academic, but also that social emotional learning that we know is so important to our students, especially students from underserved communities.”
Other education, civic, and mentoring leaders in attendance included Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti; Congressmen Adam Schiff and Ted Lieu; Interim Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Megan K. Reilly; LAUSD Board President Kelly Gonez; Vice President Nick Melvoin; CAA Co-Chairman Bryan Lourd; and Education Leaders of Color CEO Sharhonda Bossier. MENTOR CEO David Shapiro talked about the importance of the campaign and invited other organizations serving youth to join the coalition, “The time is now to rally support for our students, educators, and communities. With outstanding partners, we’re working together and creating a powerful movement to make sure every young person has someone they can turn to.”
Mentors and mentees from Up2Us Sports and YMAN participated in field day activities and talked about the impact of mentoring on their lives.
MENTOR California, a key partner in planning the event, was represented by President & CEO Marcus Strother and Youth Board Member Anaya Bullard who participated in the meet and greet portion of the day. “Mentoring is about being vulnerable. It’s about providing relationships that are built on trust, love and support,” said Marcus. “When key community partners come together to ensure our young people get what they need as whole children, we, as a community, win big! The READY SET Campaign is a powerful and collaborative effort of people doing all we can to make sure we reimagine how our youth start school with a head start.”
To learn more about READY SET and how you can get involved, visit https://www.getreadyset.org.
