Schools seek mentors Schools seek mentors (August 22, 2003)

Generations program pairs teens with adults

By Julie O'Shea

The Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District has put out a call for a couple of big brothers and sisters.

The effort is part of Partners for New Generations, a mentoring program that started at Alta Vista High School a few years ago that had its first successful run at Mountain View and Los Altos High Schools last year.

Organizers are looking to recruit more community members willing to pair with high school students for a year of dining, movie going and advice swapping -- just a few activities past groups have shared together.

It's about having a good time, said Generations founder Bob Adams, but mostly it's about the relationship between the high-schoolers and their mentors.

On Aug. 28, a training and orientation session for Generations alumni and community members interested in joining the program will be held at the high school district's headquarters at 1299 Bryant Ave. The session will start at 4 p.m.

For Jose Vargas (a former Voice intern), the experience has been life changing.

"Rich Fischer (the MVLA superintendent, and Vargas' mentor) has basically become a father to me," said the 22-year-old Mountain View High grad.

Vargas arrived in California a decade ago from the Philippines, and first met the Fischer in 1998. The two instantly bonded, and now Vargas can't imagine life without Fischer.

"I love the guy," said Vargas in a phone interview last week from Washington, D.C. where he is interning at the Post. "He's just a warm person. You can talk to him easily."

"It's great," agreed Denise Hernandez, who begins her senior year at Los Altos High later this month. "I have someone to talk to outside of school and outside of home."

Hernandez, 17, was referred to the program by a teacher and has been doing lunch and mall dates with Nancy Vandenberg, the youth resources manager for the City of Mountain View, for the last couple of months.

The two pals talk about pretty much everything, Hernandez said, from what's going on at school to life at home and most recently: college admissions.

The teen, who works as a part-time cashier at the Milk Pail Market and is the first in her family to pursue higher education, said she doesn't know where she wants to go to school yet but thinks she'd like to study communications.

"My plan is to keep in touch with her as long as she wants to keep in touch with me," Vandenberg said. "It's been a really good experience

"I really like to read. She's interested in being a book editor. It seemed like it would be a good fit," Vandenburg said. "We go out to dinner, ice cream, the museum. We went to the mall," she added. "Mostly we just hang out and talk."

Linda Waud, a certified clinical psychologist at Alta Vista who is the main coordinator of the "Generations" program, said she tries to pair up students and mentors based on personality and interests. Would-be mentors must go through an involved application process that includes a background check. They must also be fingerprinted.

When mentors meet their students for the first time, "I feel like I'm giving birth to a baby. They are just so excited to meet each other," Waud said.

"Generations" -- the brainchild of Adams, past president of the Los Altos Rotary Club -- started as "Out to Lunch." Four years and a $160,000 grant from the Packard Foundation later, it has mushroomed into popular program for the high school district.

"More kids are graduating because of this. More kids are getting good grades because of this," Adams said.

Last year, there were 40 mentor/student pairs at Alta Vista; Mountain View and Los Altos each had 15. Waud said she hopes to get more people, including a larger number of city employees, involved in the program this upcoming academic year.

"There is nothing more important than the kids," said Los Altos Police Chief Don Johnson, who was hooked up with a senior at Alta Vista during the last school year.

"I got a kid who was ready to graduate. ... My intention is not to let him go just because he graduated," Johnson said. "He's a shy guy. He's a great kid. He had a great smile."

The police chief's 18-year-old partner was interested in becoming a firefighter, so Johnson drove the teen down to the Sunnyvale Public Safety Department, where Johnson used to work, to check out the ins and outs of getting into the field.

"My big thing was that they go to college," Johnson said. So, they went on tours of the local community colleges and Johnson made sure his student had the right application forms.

For more information on the Generations program, call Linda Waud at 691-2434.

E-mail Julie O'Shea at joshea@mv-voice.com