Our Mentoring Program
The
mentoring program of the Ascending Lights Leadership Network
is the single most important component of our agency’s
work. The mentoring program has two primary objectives:
-
To ensure that each student succeeds in his or her college
studies, earning the highest grades possible. This assignment
is performed by the Academic Mentor.
- To
ensure that each student grows in the practical application
of Christian principles to the challenges facing a leader
in urban ministry. This assignment is performed by the Spiritual
Mentor.
ACADEMIC MENTORING
Each Ascending Lights student meets with an Academic Mentor
once a week. During the meeting the mentor reviews the student’s
performance in each class. Tests, papers, quizzes and class
assignments are tracked and carefully monitored. If the students
reports any difficulty, the Academic Mentor’s job to
see to it that appropriate tutoring or other assistance is
quickly arranged. The academic mentor completes a Student
Progress Report after each session and sends it by fax or
email to the Ascending Lights Program Vice President. This
highly refined process, designed by our students themselves,
has consistently resulted is significant numbers of our students
earning honor role status. The academic mentor can be a volunteer
provided by the student’s church or a volunteer or paid
staff person from the community.
SPIRITUAL MENTORING
When a student is accepted for an Ascending Lights scholarship,
his or her church selects a Spiritual Mentor to accompany
the student on their journey in our program. The Spiritual
Mentor meets once a month with the student and leads a discussion
on the assigned topic for the month. The mentor is provided
with a written Exercise for Spiritual Enrichment to accomplish
this task. The mentor also accompanies the student to the
quarterly Christian Leadership seminars conducted by the agency
on four Saturdays during the year. The Exercises for Spiritual
Enrichment examine the Word of God as it relates to the difficult
issues that challenge our faith. The Christian leadership
training seminars are all day sessions where students and
mentors learn to develop or enhance specific skills that relate
to operating Christian outreach ministries.
In some cases the Academic and Spiritual mentors are the same
individual. |