Commentary: Mentorship program at Newport Harbor High School makes a difference in kids’ lives

In recent years the pressures on our youth and high school students have become regular talking points in communities across the nation.

Our own community, as blessed as it is, has not been immune from the fallout from these pressures. We know our children and teenagers are under threat from a world that is more difficult to navigate than ever before.

Students today face pressures brought on by social media, cyber bullying, more available and potent drugs, the specter of school violence, and what columnist David Brooks called “the tyranny of the grade point average” in the Weekly Standard.

For those of us without teenagers in the house — and even sometimes when we have teenagers in the house — these pressures are often not evident. A persistent online presence can often lead adolescents to develop masked identities and not reach our beyond their device.

Our institutions are making a huge effort to address these issues, but results are hard won. As usual, real progress lies in focused work that needs to be performed by all of us, throughout our community. We are talking about the work of attention, of taking time to be with individual students, to listen and to care.

St. Andrews Presbyterian Church recently hired Chap Clark, a person who has a passion for bettering our community’s adolescents, as its pastor. Before becoming a pastor, Clark wrote a secular study about teenagers called “Hurt 2.0” in which he chronicled the lives of adolescents in modern high schools. Parents of teenagers anytime in the past decade know that the world Clark studied is not the same one we experienced in our youth.

In “Hurt 2.0,” Chap asked a school’s teacher of the year what made a great teacher. He responded: “The same thing it takes to be a great spouse, or parent, or coach, or leader in any setting. It’s not mystical, and it sure isn’t a secret. It is just caring enough for each person in front of you that they know they matter to you.”

Fortunately, hundreds of adults in our community have stepped up to spend time with teenagers. Local hero Debbie Brostek runs the mentorship program at Newport Harbor High School. Each year, juniors in high school are paired up with volunteer community mentors. Most mentors are professionals who are actively engaged in their careers.

From fall through spring, mentors spend time with their mentees at their workplace, at the ballpark, on the golf course, sailing, surfing or just hanging out. While a main objective is to introduce their mentee to their profession, the most significant outcome is a great friendship.

Our students are now in front of us. Not one of them is without concerns about their present and future. The only way to know the depth of these concerns, and to be able to help a student through them, is to be a friend who cares.

It’s about having fun together, building trust and taking the time to discuss the world, listen, and understand. Most of all, it’s about demonstrating how much they matter to you. This is mentoring, and it’s hugely rewarding for both mentor and mentee. Think about it.

Volunteer registration is easy through the Newport-Mesa Unified School District website: nmusd.ca.admin.schoolloop.com/volunteers.

BRAD AVERY and WILL O’NEILL, who have been mentors at the Newport Harbor High School program, are members of the City Council.