An initiative of Jasper County Schools
In 2016, after 36 years, Twyla Harvey retired from a role processing payroll at the local power plant. In 2017 she started a new role combining emotional, social, educational, and life skills services she refers to simply as “The Mentoring Program.” Twyla says retirement couldn’t keep her away because she wanted to do more volunteer work. The program pairs Twyla, and other volunteers, once each week with a student who will most likely become their regular mentee. They share a meal, talk about school and life, and the child has someone there to talk to so they don’t have to feel alone if they’d rather not be.
Mentoring
Matters
A Crucial Community Resource
In Action
Mentor visits may be held anywhere on the Newton campuses.Mentoring activities have been sighted in the cafeteria, library, and picnic tables outside during the spring. That’s Twyla’s thing; it can happen anywhere. “It’s that we can just have a good one-on-one. It’s so rewarding.” The formula for the program’s method is simple; Twyla says you share a meal and spend some time with a student, showing that you care. Often in a hardened world, we can lose sight of how these simple acts make a difference in children’s lives and how Twyla has found a delivery vehicle for, often, life-changing mentorship; not just for the mentee, but also for the mentor.
I hope that through this, they see that there is good in the world. There are people rooting for them when maybe they think they don’t have anybody who’s on their side.
By Nate Fisher
Twyla relates to these students, in part, because she’s lived here her entire life. She’s been in their shoes and in similar circumstances, and the attachments she develops to her regular mentees have produced some hard goodbyes. “That just makes it so much sweeter when you do get to connect again with them. You know, it’s such a joy,” she says fondly. A level of individual attachment that is involved also benefits community attachment. Students see, firsthand, their mentor’s empathy, and the social gambles they might not otherwise take are worth the risk to build not only more friendships, but deeper friendships.
The Mentoring Program also has another perk: no homework. The interaction is geared strictly toward socialization, introducing children to life skills, and simply kindnesses. Multiple research studies have demonstrated the developmental advantage of youth mentoring programs, including a 2022 review that positively links mentorship duration to predict the child’s wellbeing. “Mentoring initiatives have been shown to have multifaceted and broad impacts on youths, including improved social and academic achievement, reduced problem behavior, and improved psychological and physical wellbeing,” the Danish researchers wrote.
There’s no need for deep, academic research to predict what Twyla hopes for these students in the mentorship plan’s future: “I hope that through this, they see that there is good in the world. There are people rooting for them when maybe they think they don’t have anybody who’s on their side.” Remembering that all of us have value, mentor and mentee, is one of the best takeaways from the Mentoring Program, as it is so important to know that no matter what, there is someone who values you for exactly who you are. Twyla and her mentoring peers are a gift to these young people and vice versa. As they say, it takes a village, and Twyla and others are fulfilling a crucial role in their work in the Mentoring Program.
