Mentoring Tomorrow's Leaders

(Download Adobe Acrobat Reader to view or print PDF)

Mentoring Tomorrow’s Leaders (MTL) is a nationally recognized, peer-to-peer mentoring and student leadership program designed to support students in grades 6–12. Currently implemented in 40 Broward County Public Schools and serving over 3,000 students, MTL has earned distinction as a premier mentoring initiative in the State of Florida.

Since its inception in 2007, MTL has consistently promoted key student outcomes, including improved school attendance and completion rates, academic advancement, pupil progression, and overall student engagement. These outcomes are achieved through the program’s foundation in the MTL Five Pillars, which contribute to its sustainability and long-term success.

Peer-to-peer mentoring in the MTL program involves high-achieving upperclassmen who serve as mentors. These student leaders demonstrate strong academic performance and leadership skills and are paired with mentees—students who are working to achieve their full academic, social and emotional potential.

Through the dedicated “Mentor-to-Mentee Hour,” mentors provide encouragement, and support in areas such as academics, social development, and emotional well-being. This structured, school-based relationship is designed to be mutually beneficial, with both mentors and mentees gaining valuable personal and academic growth.

The mentoring relationship is guided by the school based MTL Coordinator, who ensures that mentors and mentees receive the support they need to thrive. The coordinator plays a vital role in facilitating guidance to community and school resources, nurturing of positive relationships that contribute to student success and expansion of leadership development.

The Five Pillars of Mentoring Tomorrow's Leaders

1. Academic Achievement

Improving the lives of students through improved academic performance forms the cornerstone of the MTL Program. Students who are struggling to make academic gains can show marked improvement when provided with the information and support that they need to succeed. Ongoing support includes at least 2 weekly mentor-mentee support hours, under the guidance of a site coordinator, to foster academic progress and strengthen social emotional learning skills.

2. Peer Mentoring

High achieving upperclassmen with demonstrated leadership skills participate in a two-year mentor relationship with students who are struggling to make academic gains. This is a structured relationship that is facilitated by the MTL site coordinator. In addition, all MTL students are exposed to adult mentors from the community during planned workshops with guest speakers.

3. Family Involvement

Student success is driven at least in part by the ability of the family to guide and support the personal and academic aspirations of the youth. MTL provides parents and guardians with parent education workshops, materials and information on a variety of topics including college readiness, graduation requirements, pupil progression plans, and successfully navigating through the educational systems. Additionally, MTL equips parents with the necessary tools to engage and communicate effectively with their children.

4. Community Support

Mentors/Mentees initiate and participate a variety of initiatives aimed at expanding their knowledge of and participation in community and civic engagement. MTL provides all members with guidance and support to assist then in taking full advantage of networking opportunities with guest speakers, industry professionals, elected officials, business owners and others. In addition, donors, sponsors and representatives from colleges and universities engage with MTL students to present pathways for post-secondary education. MTL students are consistently applauded and recognized for their involvement in volunteer activities such as food bank collection and distribution, visits to foster homes and senior facilities, collecting clothes and provisions for disaster relief, reading to pre-K students and raising money for worthy causes.

5. Student Enrichment and Incentives

Program participants gain access to a variety of rewards and incentives as they work to improve their grades and meet high school graduation requirements. Incentives include access to enrichment activities and field trips, participation in for credit college experiences, student leadership development programs, scholarship opportunities, college tours, access to professional sport representatives and events, and participation in youth focused events, forums and conferences.

Schools for Mentoring Tomorrow's Leaders

Currently Participating

Expansion

MTL has grown and evolved substantially over the years, serving the educational and social emotional needs of approximately 2,500 - 3,000 students from different backgrounds. MTL currently serves students in 1 elementary, 16 middle and 31 high schools with an emphasis on increased program growth potential among high school student populations. MTL boasts a consistent annual graduation rate of 95% or higher among active participants and students consistently demonstrate improvements in academic achievement, attendance, effective communication, leadership skills and social emotional development. MTL students are also less likely to engage in behaviors resulting in disciplinary actions, drop out of school, use illicit drugs or participate in gang activity. As a result, MTL has extensive positive name recognition within BCPS and throughout the community.

Alumni of the MTL program are represented in colleges and universities around the country and continue their service to MTL through Alumni forums and other opportunities to engage, motivate and demonstrate pathways to postsecondary opportunities for the students currently enrolled in the program.

MTL is supported by the Mentoring Across Broward Team, which is a part of the district’s Equity, Diversity and School Climate Department.

History

During the 2007-2008 school year, under the leadership of Amalia Pares-Pomerantz, concerned high school educators at Plantation High School formed a professional learning community to address the academic needs of African American male students. This group became AAMSA– African American Male Student Achievement group; members included Shirley Baker, Diana Carter, Arlene Galarza, Wayne Johnson, Paul Kantorski, Patricia Lesesne, Dona McKenzie, Jeanne Pellegrino, Frank Pinkney, and Teresa Young. During the following school year, after exploration of effective intervention strategies by the group, a peer-mentoring model through which low-achieving African American male freshmen would be paired with high achieving upperclassmen in a mentor-mentee relationship as a means to promote and increase academic achievement was suggested. This model was enthusiastically embraced and implemented by the group and Mentoring Tomorrow’s Leaders (MTL), was the name ultimately given to the new program.

In the first year of the program, over forty high achieving, African American male Plantation High School students volunteered to become MTL mentors and began to work with their mentees. The MTL program was further refined to include clearly established guidelines and prescriptive programmatic cycles prior to being launched the following year at Boyd H. Anderson High School.

While AAMSA/MTL was working to improve the academic success of African American male students at Boyd H. Anderson and Plantation High Schools, the BCPS High School Graduation Rate Task Force, headed by Dr. Laurel E. Thompson, Director of Student Services, was working diligently to identify strategies to improve the high school graduation rate within the district. MTL was recognized as one viable model to be utilized for increasing the graduation rate. This model was written into a proposal for a 5-year grant for $4.5 million from the USDOE High School Graduation Initiative (HSGI) and on September 30, 2010, BCPS was notified that the Mentoring Tomorrow’s Leaders Project was one of twenty-four projects in the nation to be awarded the HSGI grant. This grant allowed for the MTL model to be fully implemented at Boyd H. Anderson High School and Plantation High School – schools that met the USDOE’s guidelines for dropout rates.

MTL Alumni

MTL Events

For more information, please email mentoringacrossbroward@browardschools.com or call 754-321-1600.