Speaker 1: And good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome.
Speaker 1: It is time now for our community connection right here
Speaker 1: on K one, the one you trust. We're talking to
Speaker 1: the Young Scholars of Bartellsville and we have Deanna Cameron
Speaker 1: and George Hockey it is here with us today and
Speaker 1: I got to tell you, folks, it's great to have
Speaker 1: you on board.
Speaker 2: A little chilly in here, a little bit, but we're
Speaker 2: here to get.
Speaker 1: Everybody's attention today because we need some mentors, don't.
Speaker 3: We We absolutely do.
Speaker 4: We are a strong scholarship mentor program and probably one
Speaker 4: of our biggest needs right now is going to be mentors.
Speaker 4: We have five students that are looking for mentors to
Speaker 4: help them guide this guide them on this path to college.
Speaker 1: Woh my goodness. Now, George, you're no stranger to mentorship.
Speaker 1: You know a little bit about this, that's correct.
Speaker 5: I've been involved with Young Scholars of Bartellville so almost
Speaker 5: since the beginning of the program.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 5: But and how I got involved was I was involved.
Speaker 5: I've been involved with Big Brothers, Big Sisters and which
Speaker 5: partners with Young Scholars of Bartlefield. That's where we do
Speaker 5: the front end of the mentoring and so we work together.
Speaker 2: It's always great to have collaborators.
Speaker 5: Yes, and so, and that's that's where my involvement began.
Speaker 5: And I now serve on the Board of Young Scholars
Speaker 5: of Bartlefield and so that's where I'm helping and trying
Speaker 5: to find mentors. And you know, I said, it's very
Speaker 5: important that relationship of having a mentor working with our
Speaker 5: youngsters is extremely important.
Speaker 2: Oh it is.
Speaker 1: It's always nice to have someone, you know, kind of
Speaker 1: helping me blaze that trail. And with young scholars, this
Speaker 1: is what it's all about. It's it's about finding your way.
Speaker 4: It is a lot of these students are going to
Speaker 4: be first generation college students and so you know, looking
Speaker 4: for the guidance, the steps to take, being prepared so
Speaker 4: when they get there they're successful. You know, college is
Speaker 4: a very different world and it can be very diff
Speaker 4: hard if you don't know what you're doing and what
Speaker 4: to expect. So the program helps them with that. We've
Speaker 4: got lots of classes that they go to, but the
Speaker 4: mentorships really help them with that.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: It's it's kind of like being that little beacon, you know,
Speaker 1: carrying that way on the dark trail. For I remember
Speaker 1: being that youngster boy. What I would have loved to
Speaker 1: have had was a program like this right when I
Speaker 1: was going through it. But if we have it here
Speaker 1: and we need.
Speaker 2: To take care of it, we really do. Now, how
Speaker 2: do we go about becoming a mentor choice.
Speaker 5: Well, it's very easy.
Speaker 2: Here we go.
Speaker 5: Well, all I have to do is contact our office
Speaker 5: and just ask and let us know. And that's the
Speaker 5: other thing. You know, a lot of times people are
Speaker 5: a little fearful of being a mentor. They think, oh, no,
Speaker 5: it's going to take a lot of time or a
Speaker 5: lot of effort or whatever. No, we're talking about maybe
Speaker 5: an hour a week, maybe not even that. We're not
Speaker 5: talking about a lot of time. And it's basically it's
Speaker 5: you do whatever you normally do. Spend some time with
Speaker 5: a youngster. You know, you mow your lawn, have your
Speaker 5: child you out there, mow the lawn with you.
Speaker 2: Things of this nature.
Speaker 5: Whatever you're doing, you're going out shopping, bring that child
Speaker 5: along to go shopping, because they observe what you're doing
Speaker 5: in normal life. You know, certainly if you can help
Speaker 5: them with their homework, Ah, that's beautiful. It is, you know,
Speaker 5: things of this nature. But the important thing is to
Speaker 5: observe you in your normal life and to be there
Speaker 5: to answer any questions that the youth have as they're
Speaker 5: going through, you know, the trials and tribulations being a
Speaker 5: you know, a youngster.
Speaker 1: You know, being a youngster, it's it's the first time
Speaker 1: you're you're met with some forms of adversity and it's
Speaker 1: all because you just don't know, you just haven't experienced
Speaker 1: enough of life. And it's nice to have that extra
Speaker 1: set of eyes, ears, and that heart for carrying and
Speaker 1: sharing along the way too.
Speaker 3: And our program does a really good job. We work
Speaker 3: with the students.
Speaker 4: We do a lot of financial so we're preparing them
Speaker 4: for life as well.
Speaker 3: That is and that is amazing we do.
Speaker 4: We partner with Westside Community Center with a class called
Speaker 4: we Prosper that our kids go through, and that's like
Speaker 4: teaching etiquette, how to dress, how to talk, what silverware
Speaker 4: to use, you know, it's a whole lot more so
Speaker 4: we're just trying to prepare them for everything that life
Speaker 4: is going to throw them, you know, from the moment
Speaker 4: that you graduate from artistwol Public Schools and make sure
Speaker 4: that they're successful as they can be.
Speaker 3: And we have a great graduation rate.
Speaker 4: So we've seen the program really benefit the kids and
Speaker 4: they're coming out. We've got kids now that work at
Speaker 4: Phillip sixty six. We have a student that's a pilot now.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So there's been a lot of success through the program.
Speaker 1: Wow, goodness sakes, you know, and I just just knowing
Speaker 1: going back, I shared a little bit with Beyond about
Speaker 1: this being a kid, the hope of ever getting off
Speaker 1: the farm was pretty bleak.
Speaker 2: And you know, you have a program.
Speaker 1: Like this and suddenly that ray of hope gets to
Speaker 1: be a whole lot brighter in a big hurry it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, you know, given that that's the beauty of
Speaker 5: the program. Uh. You know, a lot of our students
Speaker 5: like say, uh, this is the first time in their
Speaker 5: family that someone has graduated from college. And to do
Speaker 5: that and then become productive citizens in our community, become
Speaker 5: taxpayers is I always jokingly tell the kids, I said,
Speaker 5: I want you to be a taxpayer and don't pay
Speaker 5: my Social Security everyone.
Speaker 3: Helped Georgia get his money.
Speaker 5: Yeah and so uh but but you know, and as
Speaker 5: John said, uh, our success rate the kids that go
Speaker 5: through this program, it's over seventy eight percent graduate from college. Okay,
Speaker 5: this is the normal, normal kids you're talking about in
Speaker 5: the twenty percent, right, you know, and so you know,
Speaker 5: this is phenomenal success rate. So that's what we're very
Speaker 5: proud of. And so when we ask an individual to
Speaker 5: be a mentor, they're becoming part of this successful program.
Speaker 5: And they become very proud also that they've become part
Speaker 5: of this program. And that's why we're out talking about,
Speaker 5: you know, and asking people to become mentors. And again
Speaker 5: I want to stress we're not asking you to, you know,
Speaker 5: walk on the moon. We're not asking you to to
Speaker 5: solve the world's problems. Where I just asking you spend
Speaker 5: a little bit of time and and work with the
Speaker 5: youth of our community and help them out. And and
Speaker 5: it's not uh tremendous effort. And you believe me, when
Speaker 5: it's all said and done, you're going to have fun
Speaker 5: and you'll be very proud because you'll you'll look at
Speaker 5: that child, well, you'll look at that adult, and you'll
Speaker 5: look at that successful college graduate and say, I had
Speaker 5: a party.
Speaker 2: That Ah, that's great.
Speaker 1: Ye.
Speaker 2: Now, we can't keep this a secret. So this is
Speaker 2: why we're doing this.
Speaker 1: We're asking people, just like George said, take an hour
Speaker 1: out of your week and and just watch how this blossoms.
Speaker 2: And.
Speaker 4: Said they can easily call me at the office at
Speaker 4: Young Scholars at Bartlesfield.
Speaker 3: They can go also to our website. There is a place.
Speaker 4: Where they can fill out that they're interested in being
Speaker 4: a mentor. And then that comes to me and I'll
Speaker 4: reach out. I'll sit down and have coffee with you
Speaker 4: or whatever is convenient and kind of go over the program,
Speaker 4: talk a little bit.
Speaker 3: More in detail.
Speaker 4: But you know, we right now have five students that
Speaker 4: do not have mentors and that's extremely important for us
Speaker 4: to fill because for us to be able to open
Speaker 4: this up to even more students, we've got to fill
Speaker 4: the mentorships because we don't want to get to the
Speaker 4: point that we have so many kids that don't have mentors.
Speaker 4: Because the partnership is a huge part of the program.
Speaker 1: We're really not going to stop at five. We now
Speaker 1: have ten or twenty, but right now, you know it, really.
Speaker 4: I would like to have one hundred, but you know,
Speaker 4: I'll go with baby steps right now.
Speaker 2: But where where can we find you on the world
Speaker 2: wide Web?
Speaker 4: We are at Bartlespool scholars dot com. They're also welcome
Speaker 4: to stop buy We're in the RSU building in Suite
Speaker 4: eight twenty three, or they can give me a call
Speaker 4: and my number is nine one eight seven six six
Speaker 4: six six seven five.
Speaker 1: Wow, you know what Young Scholars of Bartlesville. You guys
Speaker 1: went through a name change by we did?
Speaker 2: We did?
Speaker 1: And how long has a young Scholar has been around
Speaker 1: in various forms?
Speaker 4: I believe since two thousand and six is the year
Speaker 4: that I've heard. Yes, I'm fairly new to the program myself,
Speaker 4: so I'm learning along with all.
Speaker 3: Of you guys.
Speaker 2: Well, this is great. So it's been around since two
Speaker 2: thousand and six, Yes, I knew, I've been here long
Speaker 2: for us.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so we've had nineteen We've had nineteen kids go
Speaker 4: all the way through and graduate. We have sixteen currently
Speaker 4: in college. And then we currently right now have twenty
Speaker 4: four kids anywhere.
Speaker 3: From sixth grade to twelfth grade.
Speaker 4: So they can start applying for the program in sixth
Speaker 4: grade through tenth grade.
Speaker 3: But they stay with us. They do quarterly classes.
Speaker 4: We do a lot of volunteer I think that's very important,
Speaker 4: just like George gives up his time and many people
Speaker 4: in this community. I want to teach kids that you've
Speaker 4: got to be a volunteer. You've got to give back
Speaker 4: to the community you live in. World doesn't go around
Speaker 4: if we don't have volunteers.
Speaker 2: That's true.
Speaker 3: We saw that this weekend. Eleven hundred is what I heard. Yeah,
Speaker 3: this weekend.
Speaker 1: That's crazy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it was something else.
Speaker 3: I just need five. They needed eleven hundred. I just
Speaker 3: need five. Just need five.
Speaker 2: Folk, give us a high part. That's all we ask.
Speaker 1: It's all as you know. I've seen some of these
Speaker 1: youngsters in action.
Speaker 2: I go back. I think it was a twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: We had a nine to eleven anniversary down at the
Speaker 1: Unity Square, right, those youngsters did the presentation along with
Speaker 1: some of the mentors. Oh wow, And I said, well
Speaker 1: that that's it.
Speaker 2: This is the program to get behind.
Speaker 3: It's a great program.
Speaker 1: These are these are solid individuals who are mentors, but
Speaker 1: even more solid kids the right lath and they knew it.
Speaker 3: The kids are exciting.
Speaker 2: You want to talk.
Speaker 1: About confidence when you see young people, they're not all
Speaker 1: not every young kid has got it.
Speaker 2: Now these they had it yeah going on.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean they've reached out, they've applied, they've gone
Speaker 4: through the interview process to be accepted, and I've spent
Speaker 4: a little bit of time with some of the kids,
Speaker 4: and they're excited, they're well spoken, they have goals, they
Speaker 4: have plans, they you know, they know what they want
Speaker 4: and they're just trying to figure out how to get there.
Speaker 3: So just like the rest of us.
Speaker 2: Still, so we're going to be the roadmaps.
Speaker 3: Like that, we're the roadmaps.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And as you said that, that's one of the
Speaker 5: things at the quarterly meetings, we have individuals that come
Speaker 5: in and one of the subjects was public speaking and
Speaker 5: working with the youth on how to be confident to
Speaker 5: get up and talk to others. And that was an example.
Speaker 5: We're talking about that event that we had about nine
Speaker 5: to eleven, and you know these sessions we have with
Speaker 5: West Side Community Center where they learn to how to
Speaker 5: present themselves with a job interview and things of this nature.
Speaker 5: It's more that that's the what we want to convey
Speaker 5: to everyone. People a lot of times think of our program.
Speaker 5: Is they always hear the word scholarships. Yes, we give scholarships.
Speaker 5: The kids earned scholarships, no doubt about it. But the
Speaker 5: key word there is earn scholarships earn And what we
Speaker 5: do is we prepare our students to be successful in life.
Speaker 5: They're going to We're not. I always remember one of
Speaker 5: our founders, very low. He reminded me every time when
Speaker 5: I said, our goal is to get our kids to
Speaker 5: go to college, and he said, no, cards it's to
Speaker 5: graduate from college. Well, no, it's to be successful in life.
Speaker 5: So not only to graduate from college, we want them
Speaker 5: to be successful. So what how do you how become successful? Well,
Speaker 5: you've got to learn all these skills, public speaking, how
Speaker 5: to present yourself, how to dress, how to do all
Speaker 5: of the proper things in life.
Speaker 1: My goodness, and this is the that's the avenue. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's why we need the mentors. How do we
Speaker 1: find you again on the web.
Speaker 3: We're at Bartlespiel scholars.
Speaker 4: Dot com and your phone number nine seven sixty six
Speaker 4: sixty six seventy five.
Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, you've been watching and listening to our
Speaker 1: community Connection program right here on K one