By Mike Porter

He’s a litigation lawyer at one of Richmond’s largest law firms, but Reggie Skinner remembers a time when his life’s direction was a little less certain and a mentor made all the difference.

“Did I have a mentor?  Oh, yes I did,” Skinner said. “One of my mentors growing up was Alex Taylor. He’s one of the directors of the Carver Promise mentorship program and he encouraged me to go to law school.”

Because of that relationship, Skinner can attest to the importance of a mentor in providing direction and support in a child’s life. And through Carver Promise he has become a mentor himself to 6-year-old Jarell Jones.

“He’s an awesome kid!  He’s so full of life, interested in learning, an athlete with a great sense of humor and mature beyond his years,” said Skinner.  “I actually feel that I get more out of it than he does.”

2006 Award Winners OUTSTANDING MENTORING PROGRAMS Norfolk Public Schools Student Mentorship Program Norfolk Virginia Heroes Incorporated Richmond OUTSTANDING MENTORS OF THE YEAR Fred Harmeling Chalkley Connection, Chalkley Elementary School, Chesterfield Mark Searle FACETS - Fairfax Area Christian Emergency & Transitional Services S. BUFORD SCOTT LEADERSHIP AWARD Lisa D. Winn Executive Director, The Carver Promise

Mentors make a huge difference in the lives of children across Virginia and the nation, and VCU’s Virginia Mentoring Partnership is recognizing that contribution during a special “Thank Your Mentor Day” forum and awards event on Jan. 25.

In addition, the Virginia Mentoring Partnership is holding an orientation to mentoring training session from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 31, at the Downtown YMCA Gottwald Center, 2nd floor, 2 West Franklin St. The session is free and open to the public.

The Virginia Mentoring Partnership is a nonprofit agency that operates as part of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Division of Community Engagement. The Partnership provides training and technical assistance to mentoring programs in Richmond and around the state.

Among those mentoring efforts is one that takes place on campus. The VCU Graduate School Mentorship Program matches undergraduate and graduate students in mentoring relationships. 

Boone Hopkins is a graduate student in the theater pedagogy program and serves as a mentor to Joe Carlson, an undergraduate student in the theater  performance program.

“I look at Boone as being where I want to be. To see someone who is so focused and so much further down the road offers a beacon to show me the way,” Carlson said.

“Mentoring allows Joe and me to develop a professional and social relationship,” Hopkins said.  “It’s not a static mentor-mentee relationship.  We learn from each other.”

The VCU Graduate School Mentorship Program exposes undergraduate students to the graduate experience as they consider options and make decisions about post-baccalaureate study and gives graduate students the opportunity to develop mentoring skills as they share their own personal experiences with the undergraduate participants in the program. 

“It’s really a rewarding relationship.  What I got out of it is so much more than I expected,” Hopkins said.

At Carver Elementary School, Reggie Skinner thinks his relationship with Jarell is starting to make a difference. When they met last fall, Jarell wanted to be a professional wrestler when he grew up. Now the first-grader wants to be a lawyer during the week and a professional wrestler on the weekends.

“But first I’d like to get to the 12th grade and maybe get to college,” Jones said.

To learn more, visit www.mentoring.org/virginia or call 804-828-1536.