Someone in Your Corner | Giselle Hensel-Piburn

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Welcome to Doing Good, a podcast about the people, organizations, and companies creating positive change.
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Co-hosted by Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Michael Campbell, Anna Ferrier with over 20 years in the nonprofit world of northern New Mexico, and myself, Gabriela Marks, photographer and visual storyteller with a focus on people doing good things.
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Most of us can remember someone who believed in us well before we believed in ourselves.
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A teacher, a coach, or simply someone who cared about our future.
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At Monte del Sol Chartered School in Santa Fe, mentorship connects students with community members who generously share their knowledge, experience, and time.
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Today we're exploring the power of mentorship, why people give their time to help young people succeed, and how both lives can be changed in the process.
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Our guest for this episode of Doing Good is Giselle Hansel Pibert, director of the mentorship program at Monte del Sol Charter School.
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I probably butchered your name.
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It's Giselle.
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Giselle.
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Giselle.
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Well, welcome, Giselle.
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It's great to have you here today.
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And full disclosure, I know Giselle because I am a mentor at Monte del Sol, so I am fully identifying myself as one.
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And when I uh the way I found out about the program was a friend who was a mentor just reached out and she was like, I'm sure they could use a photographer.
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Why don't you just reach out?
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And and I did and uh was brought into a world where I had no experience with education, working with high school students, any of that, but have found it to be an incredible experience.
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So, Giselle, I just wanted to begin with um if you could please describe what it is you do there at Monte del Sol.
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Yeah, I so I run the mentorship program.
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I feel like I'm the steward of this program that's truly magical and has been around for 27 years.
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Um, it started with the beginning of the school as one of the cornerstones of the school.
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And um it's it focuses on the pillar, one of the four pillars, which is community.
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And what I do there is I match people like you, Gabriella, with a student who's interested in either a career like yours or in just some kind of life exploration of something that they want to do.
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Wow.
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And it's unusual because the mentorships are actually required for graduation, right?
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Yeah, actually that's really pivotal because um other schools have sort of a um sometimes an educational component of maybe a career, an internship, something like that that students can do.
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But often it's not as robust because we're able to, because it's a requirement, we have to do two years.
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Uh, the students have to do two years to graduate from Monte, which means we capture every student, even if that student's a little bit kicking and screaming going in because they need it, right?
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So, and sometimes those students who feel a little hesitation actually have the most to benefit and the most transformation is often seen with those students.
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And we feel that that's crucial to include them as well.
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And so we do probably about 120 mentorships every single year.
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Wow.
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Wow, that's a lot.
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A lot.
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So, Didell, are these kids doing so is Monte del Seul a high school?
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Is it can you can you tell us about that?
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And how old are the kids in?
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It's a middle and high school.
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Okay.
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So it's actually seven through twelve.
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And the requirement that Gabriella was talking about is actually for uh high school.
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So they have to do it two years there.
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And some students actually do all four years, so it's not limited to those two years.
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And occasionally an eighth grader will step forward and have a lot of agency and maybe a parent who could drive them a lot, and so they can join in too.
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It's not that often, but it can happen.
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Wow.
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Wow.
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I'm curious though, how did you come to this?
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Was this something?
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So you said you've it's been happening at Monte del Sol since the beginning.
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Have you been involved with it since the beginning?
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I have not.
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I've been there 13 years.
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Uh-huh.
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And you're a teacher by profession?
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Um, not exactly.
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I tell us, tell us.
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I graduated UCLA with a fine art degree in painting mostly.
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Uh, I spent a year in Venice, Italy doing also paint and living the dream.
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That was magical too.
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A million years ago.
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Um and then I started working, then I came to Santa Fe 33 years ago and uh did some odd jobs, had my first child, and then started working with um with a native school, Okewing, north of here, and just doing some um environmental work just north of there.
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And so uh that kind of started getting me into education a little bit, and I and I started to feel the spark, and um, and I but I was working for a nonprofit.
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And then a friend of mine who Lisa Adler, who ran the program um for many years before I was there, she said, You should be doing this.
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And I was the for the first day I said, You are crazy.
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I'm not gonna do that.
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And that's I I wouldn't be good at that.
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And the next morning I woke up and I was just like, wait, I have to call her back because I do think it would be great.
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And uh it has been.
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It's been a wonderful journey, and I feel like I'm a I'm a good steward of that program.
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I have a lot of passion.
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I I care so deeply.
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I've my phone is kind of on 24-7.
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I just I want to be available to make every mentorship successful and to support the mentors who are giving so, so much.
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And I want it to be a win-win all around.
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So um when the kids come, I'm I'm sure you have varying degrees of of interest.
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Like some kids probably know that they want to be an astronaut.
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Um, and some kids probably just have no idea, like, I just want to survive the day.
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Uh, do you is that part of the program is guiding them into something so that they can arrive at something that's you know you can mentor them with?
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Uh you're right, because to have a meaningful journey, you have to have some skin in the game.
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You have to have at least curiosity, if not a strong passion.
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And and it's true also that kids come in and don't really know what they want to do.
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And so we just sit down and start to go, well, what do you when you wake up on a Sunday morning, what do you want to do?
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Or if somebody gave you a thousand dollars to learn something with no strings attached, what would it be?
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And so we just try to have those one-on-one conversations, which again I think is why this program back to the beginning of it's hard to run a program with such a robust um uh through line.
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And so uh yeah, I would love every student in Santa Fe to have this.
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And and we've collaborated with a city, they've had a program that modeled after ours and um lasted a few years, and hopefully we'll do it again in the future.
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So from the I I'm interested in hearing both from the mentor and the mentee perspective, sort of the uh what the surprising benefits maybe?
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Maybe talk about it from the kids' angle first.
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Yeah, I think they there's often a trepidation and fear coming in to connect with an adult.
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It doesn't happen so much in our society, I think, where kids are compartmentalized in a class of 20 other kids of the age 14, and that's where you are.
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You and if you hang out at the mall or hang out with your friends, it's it tends to be those cohorts.
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And um, I don't know, I think in the past it used to be more um like a vertical of ages where you would interact with um a lot more ages and and have connections with grandparents and friends and uncles and aunts and the community maybe would get together more.
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So you can say that every age group though in modern society were so you know siloed.
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Yeah.
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Exactly.
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Well, and I think the to your question about how they each come to it, many adults feel the same way.
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They're afraid to work with the children.
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I I I felt incredible intrepidation.
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Yeah.
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It was I I how do what what do I talk to a high school student about?
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I I I just I've I had had such limited exposure, but it's been such an um uh if someone I I don't live in Santa Fe, I'm outside of Santa Fe, but my business is in Santa Fe and I work all around the state.
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I feel more a part of sort of cultural fabric of Santa Fe being a mentor.
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And I think it has to do with having a relationship with um a student that's a different generation and having a sense of what they're going through.
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And um, I don't know what that was.
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I don't think anyone heard that, but there was a large change.
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I think Fergus agreed.
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Fergus was in agreement.
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Um, and and and getting a sense of what a younger people are going through, but also how I can be a role model, which is incredible because a lot of us are just going about our daily, you know, trying to uh accomplish what we want and get what we need.
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And you don't think about your role in community as a role model, you know, in in the business world or just in general.
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It's that's been one of the most absolutely rewarding aspects of this.
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You it's just one one one student per year, is that or do you have multiple?
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Some some some mentors take on multiples.
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Sure, sure.
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But you generally do because you're on a on a running around to shows and things.
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Yeah.
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Um, but I I love to hear that.
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That's super special for me because again, I was the win-win for me is to see a mentor and a student walk away going, wow, that was awesome.
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And um, mentors often do tell me that, wow, I wish I had this when I was younger.
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And for for me to have this job is such a beautiful opportunity because I get to meet amazing adults, and not only because you have incredible skills and and things that you do and make, and it's fabulous to see all of so many Santa Fe um people come to us like that.
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But I work with people who have a special quality in that they want to work with young people.
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And I think that generosity and that giving back to the cult to the community is pretty spectacular.
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Um, and so for me, that's so lucky.
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And and again, what they what they give to the student is just making them feel like somebody's in their corner, like somebody who doesn't have to be.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Somebody who cares about them and wants them to learn and grow and have fun, and and sometimes they probably feel a little bit of love too.
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Do you have advisors for the mentors?
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Uh me.
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Yeah.
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No, because I mean, um, like, you know, I'm just thinking about I'm assuming that most of the people who are mentors are actually working in the field that they're mentoring.
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So um, you know, it it it it seems like such a like where do you start?
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You know, I mean, if if photography, I mean it's so broad.
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Yeah.
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Well, I was like, is there a curriculum?
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What it what what are our criteria for success at the end of this project?
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You know, right, right.
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And it was really one of the beautiful things is learning to for me was learning to be comfortable with the organic.
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Okay, where is the student?
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How are we connecting?
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And then figure out how to build something from there.
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Yeah.
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But it it's there's so many different uh professions.
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Oh my gosh.
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We've had over a thousand mentors, we've done almost four thousand mentorships.
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It's it's vast, yeah.
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What's what's the most requested mentorship?
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Oh, um, okay, two answers to that.
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There's a a kind of a cycle, and so every year things one year rock climbing's popular, one year it's photography, one year welding.
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Um, but there's kind of a through line where every year culinary is like top of the chart.
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Wow, really?
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And when I started 13 years ago, it was mostly students that went to the restaurants and learned how to sous chef, learned how to chop onions first, and then move up to meat and then move up to plating.
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And um, but what we've really seen happen over this time period is that students just want to learn how to cook for their own life, for their friends, families, how to be able to feel a little more confident going into their future.
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I love that.
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That's great.
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I love the energy that speaks to me.
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I I ran cooking with kids for a long time here in Santa Fe.
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So when I hear that, it's like, oh, that makes me so happy.
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The value of it.
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It carries forward.
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Yeah, well, it's a wonderful life skill.
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One of the things that's fun I found so amazing that I didn't anticipate uh was that so much uh the mentorship, I was like, well, how much of my career or how much of what I do for a living can I actually impart?
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Um and and I realized that uh a lot of it is is sort of adulting.
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That part of being a mentor is is adulting, and and that's why it makes sense, you know, learning how to cook for your family or things like that.
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But it's you know, uh not even so much like how, you know, what uh what light settings am I going to use in this setting to get the best photograph?
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But also how do I interact with this other person?
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I don't know that well, how do I interact in this kind of, you know, it's it's it's it's fascinating to be aware that that's something we learn as well.
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And that goes across professions, right?
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Absolutely.
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And how did you feel your students have done with communication?
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Some were far more communicative than others.
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Right.
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And in it's it, I you know, like learning to let them sort of set.
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It's it's it's it's you know, when you're not the parent of a high school student, it they are slightly different creatures.
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They're the the way they communicate, the platforms where they communicate, and those have shifted over the years, you know, with the different ones.
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But for sure.
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And that's a big part of what I see is one of the biggest life skills that they're maneuvering, and also that mentors have to be warned in the beginning that you're helping them build this, and it's also going to be frustrating sometimes if they leave you on a corner one day because they forgot.
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And so we have to build that from both sides, and that's one thing that we that I find that I do a lot of tutoring for, and even just how to formulate a text, even though that's more their language, and they'd prefer to do that versus a phone call.
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Right.
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Do you um keep any kind of uh tracking in terms of you know mentorships versus where they go into a career?
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You know, we really don't have the um the funding to be able to do that.
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So to backtrack a little bit, Monte's a charter school, which it really just means we're a public school with a little spin.
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And the spin is the mentorship.
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We we do this as part of our curriculum for graduation.
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And so uh even just that, we just are barely able to maintain it.
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And I think because it's a requirement, we've been able to really hold on all these years, but it's extremely uh it takes a lot of uh woman power in the past, but now we have Simon who helps me, and so we have a team and Judy Herzl was working with with us until she retired.
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She was with me for about a decade and was wonderful, and so um uh where now I lost my train of thought.
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I was just talking about whether or not you can actually track where mentorships wound up and land.
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I do I do remember that the speaker at the celebr at celebration night last year, I think was it?
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Tony Groxter, who Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Um Ryan, who um was uh graduated from Monte and uh became a doctor, and now he's back in Santa Fe working at the um at Chris Christus and will probably be a mentor next year.
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So we're seeing student alumni coming back and starting to step forward and either call me to be a mentor or we track him down to be a mentor, but we don't have a lot of strings to many of the alums.
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Um, but but Tony Gerlicks, who started the school, and Al Ann Saltzman, who has been on our board, are just now starting to do a little bit of uh re uh reaching out to the family database that we've had over these years.
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And so even though we don't have student cell phones, we have we're contacting parents to just start to build that and and hope we could do that through a volunteer base, you know.
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Sure.
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But but returning returning, I'm sorry, uh returning alumni, I mean, is a is a healthy indicator of how successful a program is.
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I mean, we um had uh Roger Montoya from uh Moving Arts Espanola as a guest.
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And um the number of mentors that they have that are actually alumni is astounding.
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And and to me, you know, it that that's you you've created fully formed adults, you know, if they're coming back and uh as an alumni to to mentor the next generation.
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So that that that that's a nice metric.
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Yeah, yeah.
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And I I do hope we can do better at tracking in the coming years.
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Like you said, though, it's it's funding like so many things.
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Yeah, yeah.
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I'm thinking maybe now's a good time to take a little break.
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Sure, sure, sure.
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We're trying to be better at this.
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So someone who's doing good in your community?
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We'd love to hear their story.
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Visit doinggood.fm and tell us about someone who's making a difference.
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That's doinggood.fm and we're back.
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Um I would just to bring it back to you.
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Uh were there mentors that made a big difference in your life and your evolution?
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Oh gosh.
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Um you know, I don't know.
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I I uh my high school years were kind of uh a little bit of a blur.
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I lost my mom in in elementary school, and my family came from Argentina before I was born, and so I was a first generation in the US.
00:18:33.200 --> 00:18:42.400
Um and so in a way I I kind of floated through without attaching to a lot of adults in in my um you know immediate circles.
00:18:42.559 --> 00:18:49.839
And and perhaps that's one of the reasons being in this role is is so moving to me and powerful.
00:18:50.640 --> 00:19:11.279
Um but I think if I were to to just hone in on a person, it would be my sister, who's uh quite a bit older, and so she played a role in many capacities that were uh both kind of parental, but also buddy and sister and mentor, and and you know, I still adore and look up to her.
00:19:14.559 --> 00:19:18.000
That's that's that's yeah, that's powerful.
00:19:18.319 --> 00:19:19.200
I I'm sorry.
00:19:20.480 --> 00:19:27.680
But it's it's it's it's often fascinating hearing um the origin story of where someone's sort of service comes from.
00:19:28.720 --> 00:19:30.720
And that that could be uh an influence.
00:19:30.880 --> 00:19:36.000
Um so could you describe some um mentorship experiences?
00:19:36.880 --> 00:19:37.359
Sure.
00:19:38.799 --> 00:19:40.319
Um all right, let's see.
00:19:40.720 --> 00:19:43.440
I want you to close your eyes and imagine.
00:19:43.599 --> 00:19:44.640
Okay, I'm doing it.
00:19:44.720 --> 00:19:46.160
Are you is everybody's eyes closed?
00:19:46.480 --> 00:19:47.599
Or do you look at my own?
00:19:48.480 --> 00:20:06.480
Um so you're sitting in the lensic and you're ready to watch a show, and you hear a siren far away, it's just back there, and then it's growing louder and louder, and you start to it catches your attention and it stops, and it sounds like the ambulance is right outside the doors of the lensic.
00:20:07.279 --> 00:20:12.960
So then you hear your peaked and you hear a lot of noise and talking and voices in the lobby.
00:20:13.519 --> 00:20:30.400
The next sound is the bursting doors of the lensic, and a gurney comes rushing down the out the aisle, and uh the group of paramedics are propping it up to onto the stage, and they're in a flurry taking care of the patient that's on the gurney.
00:20:30.559 --> 00:20:39.119
And then the student, the protege, the teenage protege grabs a microphone and describes in detail all the steps that they're doing to save this person's life.
00:20:39.440 --> 00:20:40.079
Oh, wow.
00:20:40.480 --> 00:20:40.720
Wow.
00:20:41.039 --> 00:20:41.759
That's impressive.
00:20:42.079 --> 00:20:44.960
Uh so the student came up with this themselves?
00:20:45.359 --> 00:20:48.160
So this is what happens at the end of their year journey.
00:20:48.319 --> 00:20:55.519
They have to pay it forward to our school and show what their journey was about to the other students.
00:20:55.839 --> 00:20:56.000
Wow.
00:20:56.319 --> 00:21:06.079
You know, so that student, she may not have gotten ahead in EMT, but she should certainly get credit for having you know convinced an EMT team to come up with a new video.
00:21:06.559 --> 00:21:08.720
How did she get an ambulance to show up?
00:21:09.359 --> 00:21:10.319
That's impressive.
00:21:10.720 --> 00:21:11.519
It is, right?
00:21:11.680 --> 00:21:19.680
And so my I remind myself, and I it feels natural to me to to have yes be the first answer to a student.
00:21:20.240 --> 00:21:22.079
And then we try to figure it out.
00:21:22.319 --> 00:21:27.119
It doesn't always work, but but if I start with that yes, it's pretty great.
00:21:27.279 --> 00:21:34.160
Um, and so this student had that crazy idea with her mentor who was a paramedic, and they just great ideas.
00:21:36.160 --> 00:21:47.200
And we were a little touch and go because of course, if there were a true emergency at that particular time of the morning, the we the Lensick would have had to skip her presentation.
00:21:47.839 --> 00:21:56.319
So um uh before we get too far, can you talk about the event at the Lensick and what that means to the program and now how it manifests?
00:21:56.640 --> 00:22:09.359
And maybe for folks who don't know Santa Fe, the Lensic is a I Iconic seat theater theater that was renovated in in recent history to its original glory, and it's right on one of the main drags in Santa Fe.
00:22:09.839 --> 00:22:10.880
It's a busy street.
00:22:11.279 --> 00:22:11.759
It's a jewel.
00:22:12.319 --> 00:22:12.880
It's a jewel.
00:22:12.960 --> 00:22:13.680
That's my thought too.
00:22:14.319 --> 00:22:14.640
Yeah.
00:22:14.880 --> 00:22:15.440
I love it.
00:22:15.599 --> 00:22:18.799
And so we've been, we've been um okay.
00:22:19.039 --> 00:22:27.119
So we have three days of presentation because with 120 students or so, it takes a long time for each one to share with the whole school.
00:22:27.359 --> 00:22:31.119
Um, we do a three-day, it's almost like a field trip.
00:22:31.200 --> 00:22:39.519
So the whole school goes to the Lensig one day, the whole school goes to IAIA another day, um, the campus on the south side.
00:22:39.680 --> 00:22:42.480
And then the third day is at our school.
00:22:42.720 --> 00:22:49.920
And so those days we call it the mentorship festival of learning, and it's where yeah, they all share their years' experience.
00:22:50.319 --> 00:22:52.640
Wow, that's gotta be so satisfying watching that.
00:22:52.799 --> 00:23:01.279
Yeah, it is really great for me too, because of course I've during the year I launch them at the beginning and I don't see them again.
00:23:01.440 --> 00:23:11.119
And then I take care of any problem in between, and then at the end, we get to enjoy this, yeah, what the product of what so it's a whole school year.
00:23:11.359 --> 00:23:11.839
Yeah.
00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:20.960
Uh it depends because some students can start in August and some don't start until you know, right before Thanksgiving or or Christmas break.
00:23:21.200 --> 00:23:30.400
Um, it would be my hope that someday we can match everyone before in the first quarter before the before October, even.
00:23:30.559 --> 00:23:33.920
Um, because then all the students are starting at a similar pace.
00:23:34.079 --> 00:23:38.559
And I think the the energy of the school would be more palpable that way.
00:23:38.880 --> 00:23:44.240
So is your summer spent trying to how how this seems like a gargantuan.
00:23:44.720 --> 00:23:51.839
I mean, when I just think about it, I just like the broad board and all the strings between the students and the mentors, and what an incredible thing to keep.
00:23:52.960 --> 00:23:56.799
So, no, I can't start in the summer because I don't know what the students want yet.
00:23:57.440 --> 00:24:06.799
Um, on that, however, if we we can talk to culinary people and things like that, because of course we know that's gonna be in request.
00:24:06.960 --> 00:24:15.759
Um, but in general, one year I did that, my early year, and I I got a bunch of people for rock climbing, and the following year there was no request.
00:24:16.160 --> 00:24:19.839
So I was like, oh my gosh, I spent all that time.
00:24:20.160 --> 00:24:23.279
Um, so I it has to be a little more organic than that.
00:24:23.440 --> 00:24:26.319
Um, but it is a crazy pants kind of thing.
00:24:26.559 --> 00:24:37.200
Um, I was just sitting with um Anna Luisa, who does uh uh party rentals and and party events, and she's became a mentor for the first time.
00:24:37.359 --> 00:24:43.200
Her daughter graduated from our school um recently, but our but she came as a mentor a couple weeks ago.
00:24:43.359 --> 00:24:51.519
And she was describing to the student all these million pieces, how everything has to fit exactly right for a wedding or a kinsey.
00:24:51.759 --> 00:24:54.559
And I was like, that's exactly what we do here.
00:24:57.119 --> 00:24:58.799
I was like, you could take this job.
00:24:59.519 --> 00:25:09.200
Um so so yeah, we just we just call all our friends and our friends' friends and look in the database and try to pull up people who've done it before.
00:25:09.279 --> 00:25:13.680
And and once in a while we have to just cold call and and try to find somebody.
00:25:14.640 --> 00:25:24.559
So this isn't a comment about the rest of the way that you teach courses, but do you find that there's a higher engagement from the student with the mentorship program than say for math or English?
00:25:24.799 --> 00:25:27.359
I mean I mean are they are they that much more engaged?
00:25:27.519 --> 00:25:31.200
Does that lead like for instance, um cooking with kids?
00:25:31.359 --> 00:25:37.119
Yeah, it's not just teaching kids how to cook, it's teaching them how to measure, how to, you know, decimals and fractions.
00:25:37.359 --> 00:25:45.680
I mean, do do is there uh are there spin-offs that happen from that like photography, like th thinking about something else, or I can do this?
00:25:45.920 --> 00:25:55.519
Uh I'm not sure exactly what I'm asking, but uh it's it's it it sounds like the the the the involvement from a student is gonna be much higher because it's something they're interested in truly.
00:25:56.480 --> 00:25:59.680
I think it's also because uh it's hands-on, right?
00:25:59.759 --> 00:26:02.960
You're you're doing something that you want or you're curious about.
00:26:03.119 --> 00:26:15.759
You're getting to either stick your hands in the clay or at least uh uh take a take a take photos with you, Gabriella, or sometimes they're in the room, a surgery room, watching open heart surgery.
00:26:16.079 --> 00:26:16.240
Wow.
00:26:16.400 --> 00:26:16.559
Wow.
00:26:16.799 --> 00:26:18.480
And they don't get to have hands on that.
00:26:21.279 --> 00:26:22.240
See that person?
00:26:22.480 --> 00:26:24.160
I touched their heart.
00:26:24.799 --> 00:26:27.920
But they get to see that or or watch a baby being born.
00:26:28.000 --> 00:26:30.400
You watch a human come into this earth.
00:26:30.480 --> 00:26:32.000
I mean, incredible stuff.
00:26:32.240 --> 00:26:33.599
It's transformative.
00:26:33.759 --> 00:26:34.079
Okay.
00:26:34.480 --> 00:26:40.799
And some students see that in the moment and and really grok that, but I think it grows.
00:26:41.039 --> 00:26:49.279
It's like that seed, and and five or ten years down the road, maybe that's when they come back to be a mentor and say, wow, that was nobody gets this.
00:26:49.359 --> 00:26:52.880
I'm out in the world and and I talk about it and they look at me like I'm crazy.
00:26:52.960 --> 00:26:54.160
What do you mean, a mentorship?
00:26:54.640 --> 00:26:57.440
An adult that did whatever you wanted, like what?
00:26:59.200 --> 00:27:04.640
I I I feel like so much of it can it can come down to um you can't be what you can't imagine.
00:27:05.200 --> 00:27:17.680
And if you haven't seen, I mean, uh just to see what somebody's workplace is like, what it's like to walk into that hospital or or you know, how you get uh protective gear on before you start welding.
00:27:17.759 --> 00:27:25.039
The things there's so much picked up that I think is nonverbal communication about what it actually means to to be an adult, to work in the world.
00:27:25.359 --> 00:27:27.200
A thousand percent, Gabrielle.
00:27:27.519 --> 00:27:30.319
And I feel like that must be a fascinating part of it for the students.
00:27:30.559 --> 00:27:31.039
Mm-hmm.
00:27:31.680 --> 00:27:38.880
Um, and sometimes even that they can't articulate the way you're seeing that now, but but it's a huge part of their experience.
00:27:39.119 --> 00:27:39.680
Right.
00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:49.039
And um what also you're saying, how they can't imagine or they can't be what they what they can't imagine, the festival also serves as that, right?
00:27:49.119 --> 00:27:59.440
So there we have 350 students, they're watching their peers present on stage, and there's thereby they see things that are options in the world.
00:27:59.519 --> 00:28:04.240
And like, what do you mean I can go make a painting that's five feet squared?
00:28:04.400 --> 00:28:06.559
Or what or I could go fishing.
00:28:06.799 --> 00:28:07.119
What?
00:28:07.359 --> 00:28:10.559
I could so it's not just for careers, right?
00:28:10.799 --> 00:28:19.519
It's also for uh just expanding your world, your life, your your skills, your well, it validates curiosity.
00:28:20.319 --> 00:28:20.880
Absolutely.
00:28:21.200 --> 00:28:23.279
Wow, that is yeah, yeah, I love that.
00:28:23.519 --> 00:28:28.640
In fact, I had a mentor last week who said, Um, you know, I'm nervous, do you have a curriculum?
00:28:28.720 --> 00:28:31.119
I don't know what to what should I be doing?
00:28:31.200 --> 00:28:38.480
And um, I don't I don't know the I don't know guitar enough to be like a fancy teacher.
00:28:38.799 --> 00:28:40.000
And I said, really?
00:28:40.319 --> 00:28:48.720
It's just to transfer the love of playing the guitar, transfer that excitement to try something new, to take those risks.
00:28:48.880 --> 00:28:55.200
And if if a student walks away just being excited about learning, that's a win for me.
00:28:56.720 --> 00:29:04.799
There are so many professions too that used to be taught based on mentorship and apprenticeship, you know, uh cobblers, horse farriers.
00:29:04.880 --> 00:29:08.400
I mean, it it photography, actually, many people don't go to school for it.
00:29:08.880 --> 00:29:10.079
Um, I did not.
00:29:10.319 --> 00:29:14.640
Um so yeah, it's it's fascinating to bring back that older sort of one-on-one.
00:29:15.200 --> 00:29:15.920
That's a good point.
00:29:16.079 --> 00:29:23.759
I mean, I I I started my career off as a uh copy boy for the uh tabloid paper back in New York City.
00:29:24.000 --> 00:29:29.920
And uh, you know, I I you you start off doing the most menial, you know, jobs, you know, sharpening pencils.
00:29:30.240 --> 00:29:38.160
But you know, you're you're the the fellow sharpening or the the the girl sharpening pencils next to you is a graduate of Columbia you know journalism school.
00:29:38.319 --> 00:29:45.119
You know, so it it's the true apprenticeship, I think, that we've lost you know our connection to, as you you said, Gabriella.
00:29:45.359 --> 00:29:55.440
You know, well to get away from testing and to get into just like interacting with people and learning through repetition, observation, experimentation.
00:29:55.839 --> 00:29:56.319
Exactly.
00:29:56.720 --> 00:30:02.559
Do you know if other uh schools around the country is this a trend that's happening?
00:30:03.119 --> 00:30:05.119
I mean, it would be awesome if it was.
00:30:05.920 --> 00:30:06.480
Oh gosh.
00:30:06.640 --> 00:30:12.720
I mean, I do not know another school that's doing what we're doing in the state of New Mexico.
00:30:13.039 --> 00:30:13.359
Really?
00:30:13.839 --> 00:30:16.880
Um, maybe we'll hear after this podcast.
00:30:17.200 --> 00:30:33.920
Um and I do know like abbreviated programs that we talked about earlier uh with with you know great effect and intent, um, but they tend to be more limited with topic, or maybe you you choose from these five, or these five rotate through your school, or things like that, which are also valuable.
00:30:34.720 --> 00:30:49.599
Um and then there's the the Met School in Rhode Island, and they have an an amazing program of kind of like NMSA where it's part uh academics, and then a few days like twice a week, they go to do internships.
00:30:50.319 --> 00:30:53.200
NMSA is oh sorry.
00:30:53.519 --> 00:31:05.839
So um NMSA is our local art school, and they do um half day theater arts, um uh visual arts, music, and then the other half a day it's academics.
00:31:06.160 --> 00:31:07.039
And that's for high school kids.
00:31:07.200 --> 00:31:08.079
And that's high school, yeah.
00:31:08.160 --> 00:31:12.640
And that's so that's a local program that's phenomenally popular and successful.
00:31:12.960 --> 00:31:15.839
Um and again, it's just for the arts, which is wonderful.
00:31:16.000 --> 00:31:23.440
And then the Met, I was comparing to to that to our local school because they split the the day too or split the week.
00:31:23.599 --> 00:31:30.319
And so uh about half the time the students not in academics but out in the world doing some kind of internship.
00:31:30.480 --> 00:31:38.640
Um but that is well, and that is limited to um careers and they work with businesses.
00:31:38.960 --> 00:31:48.079
And so they get wonderful experiences as far as um, you know, life careers and and being in the in the room with with the professionals.
00:31:48.319 --> 00:31:56.960
Um but where I think we differ is that we're doing the one-on-one and it's not necessarily always career, always in an office.
00:31:57.279 --> 00:32:06.160
Sometimes you're at a park, you know, exploring poetry or um playing music at in their in their studio, right?
00:32:06.240 --> 00:32:14.000
But so it has, I think, the capacity to build a a friendship or a relationship of a of um of a long last.
00:32:14.319 --> 00:32:14.559
Yeah.
00:32:15.039 --> 00:32:18.720
Um I know the bureaucracy in schools is is high and mighty.
00:32:19.119 --> 00:32:27.920
Does you does the school have to have a special carve out from the state in order to make this as a um uh curriculum that you have to have in order to graduate from?
00:32:28.640 --> 00:32:32.480
Uh I think that's what uh we were talking about earlier with the charter school.
00:32:32.960 --> 00:32:40.400
It's you get a sort of a special um permission to to launch something that's so more latitude in terms of coming up with your own curricula.
00:32:40.720 --> 00:32:40.960
Yeah.
00:32:43.279 --> 00:32:54.559
I I I'm interested in um i looking at how students can change a mentor, not so much a mentor changing a student.
00:32:54.640 --> 00:32:58.160
Have do you have any examples of that or thoughts on that?
00:32:58.480 --> 00:33:01.279
Uh I I completely think that's true.
00:33:01.839 --> 00:33:06.240
Um I'll I'll try to work on a memory, but well, I'm thinking of Gabriella.
00:33:06.640 --> 00:33:11.039
Yeah, we could ask her not being scared of high school kids, you know.
00:33:12.319 --> 00:33:16.240
Or just learning how to interact, learning how to talk, learning how to, you know.
00:33:16.400 --> 00:33:24.400
Um it I will I I feel like I've said this a number of times already, but I was astonished at how meaningful the experience was for me.
00:33:24.480 --> 00:33:34.319
Because I there, you know, uh I'm a you're a busy person, you're trying to run your business and keep up with everything, and then to take something else on, okay, how is this gonna affect?
00:33:35.359 --> 00:33:40.079
I did not expect, I thought it was going to be a uh an active service.
00:33:40.559 --> 00:33:46.000
Um and I don't want to say chore, although sometimes like the scheduling for me and things like that feel chore-like.
00:33:46.160 --> 00:33:49.680
What I did not expect was how much I looked forward to it.
00:33:49.920 --> 00:33:59.519
And the reward that I got from new perspective, um, from learning how to articulate what it is I do when I'm trying to show somebody else and teach somebody else.
00:33:59.680 --> 00:34:02.240
But it is so unbelievably rewarding.
00:34:02.400 --> 00:34:04.799
I mean, I think that that must be a common theme that you hear.
00:34:05.119 --> 00:34:05.680
Yeah, yeah.
00:34:05.920 --> 00:34:06.799
It really is.
00:34:07.039 --> 00:34:13.360
And sometimes, you know, articulating is a valuable process for an adult to do and to share.
00:34:13.519 --> 00:34:16.239
Um, also, you mentioned failure.
00:34:16.400 --> 00:34:20.159
Uh, we had a farrier a few years ago who said, this is a dying.
00:34:20.480 --> 00:34:23.920
I don't have many young people who are even interested.
00:34:24.079 --> 00:34:28.639
And so that was really rewarding and um stuck in my mind.
00:34:28.800 --> 00:34:39.119
Um, and then I think the an adult coming into this sometimes has um a little worry that it needs to be a certain way.
00:34:39.519 --> 00:34:52.559
And and so with sometimes we have a conversation and it helps them see that, oh, this is really just relationship building and and responding to the student in the moment and and pulling things out of the student.
00:34:52.719 --> 00:34:57.440
And so it's almost like a a listening um skill, right?
00:34:57.599 --> 00:35:02.000
That you have to go in and and just be really open and and ready to to hear the student.
00:35:02.079 --> 00:35:10.639
And maybe if there's nothing much going on at that moment for the student there in the deer in the headlights, maybe to find ways to go, oh well, what about this?
00:35:10.719 --> 00:35:14.800
And do you like this over here, or maybe that over there?
00:35:14.880 --> 00:35:19.119
And we kind of you know guide them, and so that it's a it's a dance.
00:35:19.760 --> 00:35:22.320
Have there been any mentorships that have surprised you?
00:35:23.280 --> 00:35:25.599
Uh, all the time, all the time.
00:35:25.840 --> 00:35:31.920
Um one unusual one uh a student asked me for knife throwing.
00:35:33.519 --> 00:35:35.119
So America's got talent.
00:35:35.440 --> 00:35:37.199
So I can do that.
00:35:37.440 --> 00:35:38.559
Um Did you find something?
00:35:38.960 --> 00:35:40.559
It was it was a handful of years ago.
00:35:40.639 --> 00:35:41.440
And we actually did.
00:35:41.519 --> 00:35:43.599
Do you remember Clan Tinker in town?
00:35:43.920 --> 00:35:46.639
There were like a circus uh organization.
00:35:46.960 --> 00:35:51.840
Um we ended up not doing it because they were they were traveling the country far too much.
00:35:51.920 --> 00:35:53.840
Um, but they wanted to, and the student wanted to.
00:35:54.239 --> 00:35:55.440
I thought you were gonna say insurance.
00:35:56.079 --> 00:36:01.840
Yeah, we have insurance that comes with this year, but that we've had students up in airplanes learning how to fly.
00:36:02.079 --> 00:36:02.559
Wow.
00:36:02.800 --> 00:36:10.719
Um learning how to uh work on race car engines, learn open heart surgery, um changes.
00:36:11.119 --> 00:36:12.400
I feel so I feel so unworthy.
00:36:12.559 --> 00:36:15.679
I mean all I could offer is advertising.
00:36:16.800 --> 00:36:25.760
Um but let me add and say that um just as valuable is making biscochitos with grandma in the kitchen.
00:36:26.559 --> 00:36:32.159
Because it's not just learning the uh what the the controls of an airplane.
00:36:32.320 --> 00:36:33.840
Sure, that sounds fancy.
00:36:34.239 --> 00:36:52.880
But to feel the love, to feel that you're important for another adult that maybe has you don't know, uh, to feel that somebody's in your corner, to feel that what you care about is important, that what you think matters, that somebody wants to listen and pull things out of you, that can happen in a kitchen.
00:36:53.039 --> 00:36:53.920
It can happen anywhere.
00:36:55.119 --> 00:36:59.519
Well, cooking with kids talks about you know the big chefs, the little chefs, the big littles, you know.
00:37:00.159 --> 00:37:01.280
It's incredibly important.
00:37:01.760 --> 00:37:15.280
I just think the what you're describing makes so much sense for for kids, you know, for young adults that having another adult in your life that's not related to you, who cares about you, can make such a difference.
00:37:15.519 --> 00:37:28.000
But the way that you're talking about this, it's making me think this is a lesson for life, that we take interest in each other and encourage one another in the way that you're talking about a mentor and a mentee.
00:37:28.079 --> 00:37:31.519
It's like I it feels like this is just good advice in general.
00:37:32.480 --> 00:37:40.239
What I find starting is you know uh that it hasn't been duplicated, let alone in New Mexico, but you know, uh nationwide.
00:37:40.320 --> 00:37:44.480
I mean it seems like such a uh duh, you know, uh meaningful buttons.
00:37:44.719 --> 00:37:50.559
Yeah, let me let me interrupt and say that I do think it's it's done in in ways.
00:37:50.719 --> 00:37:56.559
I don't think um I haven't heard exactly of our program because it's so um what's the word?
00:37:56.639 --> 00:37:59.519
Just through line all the way to every student, right?
00:37:59.679 --> 00:38:00.480
Twice at least.
00:38:00.559 --> 00:38:00.719
Trevor Burrus, Jr.
00:38:01.039 --> 00:38:02.159
For lengths of time, too.
00:38:02.320 --> 00:38:03.840
This isn't just like a little field trip.
00:38:04.559 --> 00:38:06.639
But but also also that you put a bar on it.
00:38:06.800 --> 00:38:09.360
I mean, the fact that in order to graduate, you need to do this.
00:38:09.519 --> 00:38:11.519
So it's not just theoretical.
00:38:11.679 --> 00:38:17.760
You know, it's not, I mean, because you know, if if somebody says paint a picture, um, you know, where do I start?
00:38:17.920 --> 00:38:24.880
But if somebody says take a pic, you know, paint a picture of of that tree uh you know on that field, then all of a sudden I've got a mission.
00:38:25.360 --> 00:38:32.559
Um so I think I think by adding that extra component of making it part of the graduation, makes it a real life stakes.
00:38:32.960 --> 00:38:34.239
Pivotal, completely.
00:38:34.480 --> 00:38:40.400
But I wanted to to add that it's not only our program's not the only valuable one, right?
00:38:40.480 --> 00:38:48.480
There's all those programs that attempt this in whatever way they do it across our country is uh, you know, kudos to them.
00:38:48.559 --> 00:38:49.280
It's so important.
00:38:49.440 --> 00:38:52.800
So everyone should keep it up and we should all do more all the time.
00:38:53.199 --> 00:38:57.840
Giselle, I I'm I'm imagining that folks listening might be interested in learning more.
00:38:58.079 --> 00:39:03.599
Could you tell people what the requirements are to be a mentor or how they might reach you?
00:39:04.000 --> 00:39:04.400
Thank you.
00:39:04.559 --> 00:39:05.039
Yeah.
00:39:05.360 --> 00:39:22.079
So um a little bit about the requirements are but that you want to share something with a student that um you you can you can kind of guess that two hours a week is a good starting point, um, but it's all dependent on your life.
00:39:22.159 --> 00:39:24.000
And so we try to be really flexible.
00:39:24.079 --> 00:39:38.239
And I think that's one reason we succeed is because sometimes um a horse mentorship, uh horse riding and horse care has to take a six-week pause because there's ice all over and we can't continue.
00:39:38.400 --> 00:39:44.639
So it could be that they meet longer days on a Saturday, then skip a couple months, and then we pick it back up.
00:39:44.960 --> 00:39:51.679
It could be that uh somebody's doing an instrument and two hours is just too much uh for many reasons.
00:39:51.760 --> 00:39:56.880
And so they maybe it's one hour a week or two one hour twice a week or every other week.
00:39:56.960 --> 00:39:59.119
So we there's some flexibility there.
00:39:59.280 --> 00:40:02.960
Um, but in general, we aim for 50 hours over the school year.
00:40:03.519 --> 00:40:06.480
Uh, and again, we try to work it out with the mentors.
00:40:06.960 --> 00:40:08.800
Uh, we figure out where to do this.
00:40:08.960 --> 00:40:10.239
Sometimes it's at our school.
00:40:10.400 --> 00:40:11.840
We have a fabulous kitchen.
00:40:12.000 --> 00:40:17.039
So many people who love to cook will come work with the students at our school.
00:40:17.199 --> 00:40:27.519
Um, and sometimes they stay after school in classrooms to do guitar or um music production in an office that's not being used at the moment.
00:40:27.679 --> 00:40:31.440
And uh it happens outside of school hours, which is important to know.
00:40:31.679 --> 00:40:34.480
So it's after three and on weekends.
00:40:34.719 --> 00:40:47.360
Um, the families are supposed to get the students to the location, but that's also a real big challenge for the program because our parents often are working a couple jobs and and that could be hard.
00:40:47.519 --> 00:40:52.400
So sometimes I sit down with a student and we look at a city bus and we figure out how to get there.
00:40:52.639 --> 00:40:56.320
Or we we lean into our bus system and they take them somewhere.
00:40:56.480 --> 00:41:02.480
But um, and so sometimes mentors, I think you drove one, your student, Sarah, to Albuquerque.
00:41:04.159 --> 00:41:05.199
You go a little further.
00:41:05.280 --> 00:41:05.440
Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.
00:41:05.679 --> 00:41:12.880
Not not not that college is the be-all end all, because I mean there's lots of people who have successful lives without college.
00:41:13.280 --> 00:41:20.719
But um and I'm I'm sorry if this is uh impolite question, but um what's your incidence of kids going off to college?
00:41:20.800 --> 00:41:24.960
Uh is it is it is it any better or than than other schools?
00:41:25.039 --> 00:41:26.639
Aaron Ross Powell, Ooh, you put me on the spot.
00:41:26.800 --> 00:41:32.480
I do not know the number of our uh graduates that go to college.
00:41:33.039 --> 00:41:34.719
I should get back to you on that.
00:41:34.960 --> 00:41:35.199
Yeah.
00:41:35.440 --> 00:41:40.480
I will say this one of my mentees, I I don't know why I prefer the word mentee to protege.
00:41:40.639 --> 00:41:44.960
Protege just sounds like a lot of airs, uh, is a Fulbright scholar.
00:41:45.199 --> 00:41:45.280
Wow.
00:41:45.679 --> 00:41:46.719
And she's in Spain right now.
00:41:47.039 --> 00:41:47.119
Wow.
00:41:47.440 --> 00:41:48.480
So there's there are really incredible.
00:41:48.800 --> 00:42:01.920
So I mean, intuitively it seems to me that you would have a higher uh incidence or higher success rate of kids going off to college or going into a some sort of career or some sort of I do think it's a high number, and I just don't know the accurate one.
00:42:02.400 --> 00:42:02.800
That's okay.
00:42:03.920 --> 00:42:12.239
And it and you're right, though, the other uh not college isn't for everyone, and so a lot of these hands-on experiences are really valuable for a student, too.
00:42:13.360 --> 00:42:15.119
I mean that that could be epiphanous as well.
00:42:17.039 --> 00:42:17.199
Trevor Burrus, Jr.
00:42:17.360 --> 00:42:18.159
I forgot to answer you.
00:42:18.480 --> 00:42:20.159
How do we get in touch?
00:42:21.679 --> 00:42:22.639
That's important.
00:42:22.960 --> 00:42:29.039
Um mentorship at montedelsol.org is an email that will reach me and the team.
00:42:29.199 --> 00:42:31.679
So uh we have a fabulous volunteer.
00:42:31.840 --> 00:42:36.320
Christina and and Simon Bose is our is working with me this year too.
00:42:36.400 --> 00:42:38.639
And so uh we all we all are.
00:42:39.039 --> 00:42:40.639
We'll include the include that on the notes.
00:42:40.800 --> 00:42:42.880
Um, I'm gonna circle back.
00:42:42.960 --> 00:42:44.880
You had a cool story that you wanted to tell.
00:42:45.199 --> 00:42:46.719
Is it still in context?
00:42:47.360 --> 00:42:47.519
Sure.
00:42:47.679 --> 00:42:50.400
Which one did you uh the second story that you had?
00:42:50.880 --> 00:42:52.239
The one about the snowing.
00:42:52.960 --> 00:42:53.519
Yes.
00:42:54.719 --> 00:42:56.239
Do you want to close your eyes again?
00:42:56.639 --> 00:43:06.000
Um so imagine you're at 12 or 14 or 16 and you're in classroom, and it's an unusual day at Monte del Sol.
00:43:06.079 --> 00:43:06.800
It's the festival.
00:43:06.960 --> 00:43:08.639
So you're not going to class.
00:43:08.880 --> 00:43:16.079
You've been asked to go outside and um and go watch something, but it's snowing, and you're like, oh, I'm gonna go.
00:43:18.559 --> 00:43:30.800
So there you find yourself with all the peers sitting or standing near the parking lot or dirt parking lot, and uh, you're a little irritated, it's cold and snow is falling on you.
00:43:30.960 --> 00:43:39.280
And you look down the drive that down our parking lot, and at the end where the street is, you see a faint figure coming through the white snow.
00:43:39.519 --> 00:43:58.159
And it turns out to be a horse, and then another horse, and they come galloping up to you and your peers uh to do some fancy footwork with the horse and uh in front of you, and then you see that it's Fabian the senior directing the horse.
00:43:58.480 --> 00:43:59.039
That's magic.
00:43:59.199 --> 00:43:59.679
That's magic.
00:44:00.159 --> 00:44:06.400
Not only that, but he had had us put speakers by the students and he had cowboy music.
00:44:07.199 --> 00:44:13.280
Whatever you know, both with this and with the EMT, the sense of theatrical pride, the pride of showing.
00:44:13.840 --> 00:44:15.199
But also the thinking big.
00:44:15.360 --> 00:44:27.119
I mean you know I mean these are I mean I'm sure that not every mentor, you know, mentored has has these big thinking ideas, but the fact that they're thinking expansively and and being able to fulfill that vision.
00:44:27.199 --> 00:44:36.559
I mean, I think that that says so much about a memory that they're gonna have and confidence that you know the next idea will be good, you know, and the next one after that, and the next one after that.
00:44:36.960 --> 00:44:41.920
And pride and the school keeps talking about it years later, you're famous.
00:44:42.800 --> 00:44:43.440
We're still talking.
00:44:43.760 --> 00:44:45.519
We we got to make posters out of those photos.
00:44:46.000 --> 00:44:46.480
That's a great idea.
00:44:46.639 --> 00:44:48.960
Giselle, I do want to uh one ask you one more thing.
00:44:49.119 --> 00:44:52.159
What do you what do you see for yourself in the next few years?
00:44:52.320 --> 00:44:55.760
I you were hinting about some change maybe coming in the future.
00:44:56.159 --> 00:45:03.679
Yeah, well, I've um been there 13 years and I think I'm I'm looking at a retirement uh at 2030.
00:45:04.320 --> 00:45:08.400
And even though it feels a little bit far, I think it's like 10 minutes away.
00:45:08.719 --> 00:45:08.960
Right.
00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:20.800
Um and so I I just love this program so much, and I want somebody to come in and and and steward it for you know for another decade or more.
00:45:21.119 --> 00:45:26.880
So you're already looking at I'm hoping I'm kind of keeping my eye uh exciting to you.
00:45:27.360 --> 00:45:27.599
Yeah.
00:45:28.079 --> 00:45:31.920
Succession is always the the the the quality of a good leader.
00:45:32.159 --> 00:45:32.320
Yeah.
00:45:32.639 --> 00:45:32.800
Yeah.
00:45:33.199 --> 00:45:34.400
Well, thank you so much for the.
00:45:34.639 --> 00:45:34.880
You know what?
00:45:35.039 --> 00:45:37.440
May I, if I may share one more little anecdote here.
00:45:37.760 --> 00:45:40.480
It's it's uh this is the Doing Good podcast.
00:45:40.559 --> 00:45:48.079
We talk about doing good, and often um part of what I think we're inspired to do is is show different patterns of of how to do that.
00:45:48.320 --> 00:45:50.400
People don't know how to get involved with their community.
00:45:50.559 --> 00:45:54.880
Uh yes, you can donate, and lots of people donate money, and that is one thing to do.
00:45:55.119 --> 00:46:02.559
But um the uh I feel like I am actually kind of part of a secret society here in Santa Fe, which is which is the community of mentors.
00:46:02.800 --> 00:46:15.760
And it is always really fun to run into somebody and discover that they too are a mentor, and that this this very simple act of having a relationship with a uh high school student is is a form of being in community and doing good.
00:46:15.840 --> 00:46:20.639
And I love to recognize this sort of spectrum of what that can mean.
00:46:21.039 --> 00:46:21.360
Yeah.
00:46:21.599 --> 00:46:28.880
Well, I I'm glad you said that because we have one of our pillars is community, and that this is how we authentically do that.
00:46:29.039 --> 00:46:48.559
It's not just uh bringing a community member into a class for 45 minutes or going to do a field trip, which are valuable too, but it's it's such a deep, robust way to connect with our local community and to have mentors that are real life people here that are giving to us is is so meaningful and and beautiful.
00:46:48.719 --> 00:46:52.000
Um, I wanted to actually list a few things that we're looking for.
00:46:52.400 --> 00:46:54.000
Oh, I know we do.
00:46:54.400 --> 00:46:59.440
Um, so we've matched probably 50 students so far in the last couple months.
00:46:59.519 --> 00:47:01.840
Um, but we're looking for many, many more.
00:47:02.000 --> 00:47:11.679
And a few that um we we're still short on are as follows uh jazz guitar, a female mentor, mind you.
00:47:11.840 --> 00:47:31.599
Um painting for realism, and maybe a little more offshoot of that, sewing, especially for creative costumes, music production, barbering, animation, so creating a little live reel, uh a firefighting female, um, fly fishing.
00:47:32.000 --> 00:47:35.360
So uh we have quite a few students who are looking for fly fishing.
00:47:35.599 --> 00:47:38.960
Sometimes you get that with female fireperson and fly fishing together.
00:47:39.360 --> 00:47:41.039
Okay, yeah, maybe so.
00:47:42.000 --> 00:47:49.440
Um, culinary, as we said, business, entrepreneurship, coding for game making, hydro engineering.
00:47:49.760 --> 00:47:50.639
That's a pretty cool one.
00:47:51.039 --> 00:47:52.800
Whoa, whoa, very specific.
00:47:53.119 --> 00:47:54.320
It is really yeah.
00:47:54.639 --> 00:47:56.000
I hope it's not to grow pot.
00:47:59.280 --> 00:48:00.239
I don't know.
00:48:01.199 --> 00:48:12.159
Uh mechanical engineering, um, urgent care facility, because sometimes our students are younger than the hospital allows them to get into, so we have to find more creative ways.
00:48:12.320 --> 00:48:18.719
Uh sonography, um, piano who somebody who speaks Spanish and wants to teach piano.
00:48:19.039 --> 00:48:22.320
Uh we're looking to connect with Poacay Wildlife Center.
00:48:22.639 --> 00:48:24.880
I see a little squirrel outside just in time.
00:48:25.280 --> 00:48:30.719
Um, the Wildlife Center is such a great place, too.
00:48:31.039 --> 00:48:31.679
That's a great list.
00:48:31.840 --> 00:48:31.920
Yeah.
00:48:32.480 --> 00:48:33.440
So imaginative, too.
00:48:33.679 --> 00:48:34.719
It's not a dry list.
00:48:35.039 --> 00:48:36.480
No, and I could never come up with it.
00:48:36.719 --> 00:48:37.760
It's a great creative list.
00:48:38.320 --> 00:48:38.880
Yeah.
00:48:39.280 --> 00:48:41.760
Um, and I also wanted to invite to the Lensick.
00:48:42.000 --> 00:48:42.400
May I do that?
00:48:42.639 --> 00:48:43.199
Yeah, please.
00:48:43.760 --> 00:48:45.679
So we do the three-day festival.
00:48:45.760 --> 00:48:47.440
The the third day is at the Lensick.
00:48:47.599 --> 00:48:48.960
It's April 23rd.
00:48:49.039 --> 00:48:51.440
Um, it's a Friday and it's during the day.
00:48:51.679 --> 00:48:55.920
So, like, I don't know, eight or nine, we start and we finish around lunchtime.
00:48:56.079 --> 00:48:59.199
And uh it's open to the public because we have plenty of seats.
00:48:59.280 --> 00:49:02.960
We want to share with our broader community, uh, inspire people.
00:49:03.039 --> 00:49:05.440
Even if you don't want to mentor, it's fun to watch.
00:49:06.000 --> 00:49:09.679
For for prospective mentors, it's actually, I think, highly educational to see.
00:49:09.760 --> 00:49:12.000
Okay, what is it, what is it that this is all about?
00:49:12.159 --> 00:49:12.400
Exactly.
00:49:12.719 --> 00:49:14.480
You can get so much from watching 10 minutes of presentation.
00:49:14.719 --> 00:49:23.360
So if somebody wants to um find out more, they can contact the school or they can call no let's go straight to mentorship at montedelsol.org.
00:49:23.920 --> 00:49:25.840
Um uh I could give my phone number too.
00:49:26.159 --> 00:49:29.840
Give it a mentorship at montelsol.org.
00:49:29.920 --> 00:49:30.000
Okay.
00:49:30.559 --> 00:49:43.039
And uh then we also do an event in February, which is uh more of a party for the mentors and the families and the students to get together and get to know each other uh in the middle of winter when it's a little slow and cold.
00:49:43.119 --> 00:49:48.400
And and so that's another great time when mentors can see the family that they're truly part of.
00:49:48.639 --> 00:49:49.360
Oh, that's great.
00:49:49.599 --> 00:49:50.480
I love that.
00:49:51.199 --> 00:49:52.559
Thank you so much, Giselle.
00:49:52.800 --> 00:50:00.880
This has been a delight learning about this and and all your all your good work and the amazing ripples that come from it.
00:50:01.599 --> 00:50:02.400
It's been delightful.
00:50:02.719 --> 00:50:04.800
This town is amazing to do this work in.
00:50:04.960 --> 00:50:08.960
It's just full of generous, amazing and talented folks.
00:50:09.360 --> 00:50:10.320
People doing good.
00:50:12.079 --> 00:50:13.519
On that note, thank you.
00:50:14.159 --> 00:50:14.800
Thank you, everybody.
00:50:14.960 --> 00:50:15.760
Take care.
00:50:20.639 --> 00:50:30.480
Interested in learning more or to join in the conversation or to share a story about someone you know who is doing good, visit us online at doinggood.fm.
00:50:30.719 --> 00:50:32.960
That's doinggood.fm.
00:50:34.079 --> 00:50:47.119
This episode of Doing Good is a production of Docky Films, a three-time Emmy Award-winning production company based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, dedicated to the power of documentary film as a force for change.