Mentoring at Lansing, Inc. (Ment@l) is about to pass a unique milestone.  Normally you would expect a student initiative to last until the founding student or students graduate.  But Lansing's peer-to-peer tutoring program founder and president William Lewis has done everything he can to insure his legacy continues to help Lansing students do better at school long after he has graduated.  In addition to building student buy-in he has also gotten teachers to recognize the program, and in August Ment@l received 501(c)3 certification so it can accept tax deductible donations.

"The overall goal of this program is to act as an agent of social change and promote an environment of greater academic encouragement while removing the stigma of needing special help in a class," Lewis told the Lansing Board Of Education earlier this year.

The program works on many levels.  Students are given incentives to encourage them to participate as mentors or mentees.  In 2012 Ment@l began issuing 'Frequent Visitor Cards', which are similar to the cards you get in coffee shops where you buy 10 cups of coffee, getting the card punched for each cup, and earn a free one once the card is filled.

The Ment@l cards are initialed by the tutors for each session attended, and after ten sessions the card may be turned in for rewards.  Lewis and his group got most middle and high school teachers to agree to offer extra credit for each fully punched card.  The cards are good for other bonuses like free ice cream and Ment@l branded merchandise, including pins, T-shirts, string bags, bookmarks, and wrist bands.  Tutors are also recognized with Community Service Certificates.

"When a Ment@l tutor reaches ten recorded sessions they receive a Community Service Certificate at the end of the year," Lewis says.  "Last year we saw four tutors get this recognition.  Other tutors rotate through , so don't necessarily reach ten sessions.  While we do have a lot of active tutors who are excited about being in the program, this provides recognition for the tutors who go a bit extra."

But perhaps the most unique initiative was to get his organization recognized as a 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation with a board of directors that will guide the program beyond his own graduation later this year.  Lewis is the board President, and he has enlisted Lansing Superintendent Chris Pettograsso, Principals Coleen Ledley and Jeff Evener, and Mark W. Nelson, a professor of Accounting at Cornell's Graduate School of Management.

The program started in the high school, but now includes middle school students as well.  This growth sparked a need for a middle school liaison, currently Lewis's sister Anna.  Lewis told the school board over a year ago that he hoped the program would become a permanent part of district offerings.  This year he told them his successor, Ellen Miller, will take over as chair next school year.

Lewis conceived of the program when he was in the eighth grade.  The program began with nine tutors, all working with high school students.  In its second year the program expanded to 12 high school tutors and added four in the middle school.  The next year participation rose again to 14 in the high school and six in the middle school.  This year Ment@l boasts 19 high school tutors and seven in the middle school.

Attendance at high school tutoring sessions reached 126 last year, and rose again to 150 this year, mainly freshmen and sophomores.  In the middle school attendance rose from 63 last year to 91 this year, spread among all four grades.  Those numbers reflect the number of students who attend each session, so if a student returns for another session it is counted as a second attendance.

"We see that a lot of these are repeat attendances by students who continue to attend after their first time," Lewis said. "They report high satisfaction with the program and say attending the program has helped them raise their class and test scores significantly."


Last year Lewis told the Board Of Education he wanted to partner with other school clubs.  This year he reported that goal is being achieved with a significant partnership with the National Honor Society.  That has provided more qualified tutors who fulfill the in-school educational assistance responsibility by tutoring in the Ment@l program.

"We greatly increased out tutor base as well as the number of tutors per session," Lewis said.  "Since NHS members require a number of community service hours per quarter, taking advantage of Ment@l has become beneficial to them.  Juniors interested in becoming part of the NHS are often excited to use Ment@l to gain community service hours in order to buff their resumés, then continue tutor once they join the NHS."

Ment@l sessions meet in the 10th grade English and Math rooms.  Lewis says that most students want English and math tutoring, especially in high school algebra.

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