"Student Voice & Leading the Mentoring Movement" - The GIPS Cast, Ep. 071

"Young people have the voice — we just need to pass the mic." 

For 25 years, Mentor Nebraska has been a leader in honoring the past and empowering the next generation.

This year, Mentor Nebraska launched something really cool; something that’s been on their vision board for a while.  This year, Mentor Nebraska established its first ever Youth Advisory Board.  Made up of nine high school students from across Nebraska, the Youth Advisory Board exists to amplify youth voices and to give student leaders the opportunity to shape the vision and impact of mentoring for both the present and the future. 
 

As if that wasn’t cool enough, Grand Island Senior High has three student representatives serving on this landmark Youth Advisory Board.  Angie, Reagan, & Zuri are more than just high school students — they’re leaders with passion.
 

Angie, Reagan, & Zuri join the podcast alongside Melissa Westbrook, Mentor Nebraska Associate Director of Member Engagement & Learning, to chat about why mentoring for youth matters, and how students are saving the world. 
 

Listen to the latest episode above or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform.

(Transcript may be found below the episode player.)

#WeAreGIPS  

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: 

Podcast Intro  00:00

This is Grand Island Public Schools podcast, and these are our stories. We are learners. We are educators in teaching hearts as well as minds. We are 10,000 diverse voices, and we're changing the world together, one classroom at a time. These are our stories. We are GIPS. We are GIPS. Somos, que y PE ese. We are GIPS. Somos GIPS. We are GIPS, and this is "The GIPS Cast".

 

Mitchell Roush  00:27

Welcome back to the GIPS cast, a conversation based podcast exploring the voices of Grand Island Public Schools in Nebraska. I'm your host, Mitchell Roush, Communications Director here at GIPS, and as always, I'm happy to bring to you new stories from all corners of our district, because here we're driven by our mission of every student, every day, a success.

 

Mitchell Roush  01:01

Students will lead the way if we give them the opportunity. Now, regular listeners of this podcast have heard me say this a number of times. Why? Because it's true, and that's why I'm excited to share this special podcast episode with you, a collaboration between Grand Island Public Schools and mentor Nebraska. For 25 years, mentor Nebraska has been a leader in honoring the past and empowering the next generation. And their goal is simple, to increase both the quality and quantity of mentoring in Nebraska and to close the mentoring gap for the one in three young people growing up without a mentor, and they do that in a number of ways, between legislative, advocacy training programs, resource sharing, community outreach, mentor recruitment campaigns and so much more. Now this year, mentor Nebraska launched something really cool, something that's been on their vision board for a while. This year, mentor Nebraska established its first ever youth advisory board made up of nine high school students from across Nebraska. The Youth Advisory Board exists to amplify youth voices and to give student leaders the opportunity to shape the vision and impact of mentoring for both the present and the future. Now, if that wasn't cool enough, Grand Island Senior High, our proud High School here at GIPS, has three student representatives serving on this landmark Advisory Board, Angie Reagan and Zuri. Now these three students are more than just high school students. They're leaders with passion, and I was fortunate enough here recently to connect with our three students serving on the Youth Advisory Board and to connect with Melissa Westbrook, who's one of mentor Nebraska's associate directors, and we chatted about why mentoring for youth matters and how students are saving the world. So for the first part of this episode, you'll hear from Reagan Zuri and Angie, and I'm confident that you'll be blown away by their perspectives and their hunger for making a difference. I know I was. And then in the second part of this episode, you'll hear from Melissa Westbrook, from mentor Nebraska, and she'll share about her passion for giving every student an opportunity to share their voice. Give a listen.

 

Angie De Orta  03:36

Hi, my name is Angie De Orta. I'm a junior at Grand Island Senior High.

 

Zuri Gomez  03:40

Hi, my name is Zuri Gomez, and I go to Grand Island Senior High. I'm a senior this year as well.

 

Reagan Kort  03:45

Hi. My name is Reagan court and I'm currently a senior at Grand Island Senior High School.

 

Mitchell Roush  03:50

Angie, Zuri, Reagan, thank you so much for being here today. I am excited to hang out and hear all about the cool things that you're doing with mentor. Nebraska. Reagan, I'll start with you. Why did you want to get involved in this opportunity. Why do you think it's important for student voices to help guide mentor Nebraska's mission?

 

Reagan Kort  04:07

Yeah, so being involved with mentor Nebraska has been really impactful for me. Mentor Nebraska really centers youth voices at the center of their mission, and it's really important that us as youth get to share our voices and our experiences, help guide, mentor Nebraska's missions and their work as an organization, because youth are at the center of their work, it's very important that youth are included in the process of the board's work.

 

Mitchell Roush  04:36

Clearly, you feel passionate about this. Have as Have you experienced mentoring in your experience as a student? Why is that important to you?

 

Reagan Kort  04:45

Yes, I'm currently a big with Big Brothers, Big Sisters of central Nebraska, and getting to step into that mentorship role was really important for me, and being able to be the mentor. Mentor and the person that I would have needed as a kid, and seeing the growth in those children that I've gotten to work with and just be friends with and see grow and help guide them as they mature and navigate life as a young person, just has really shown me how important mentorship is, and can be, makes me really passionate about guiding that mission forward.

 

Mitchell Roush  05:24

I hear that when I talk to any of our students that are involved in Big Brothers, Big Sisters, right? That ability to connect with younger students and see the tangible impact that you're making, to help students feel confident in themselves and make decisions, all that, all that makes such a big difference, that's such a good answer. Zuri, I want to come to you and ask you the same thing. I know you're a student leader, you're involved in a lot of stuff. Why is it important you think, for students like yourself to be involved at this level of mentor Nebraska?

 

Zuri Gomez  05:52

To me, yeah, like there I am involved in a lot of things, but I feel like mentor Nebraska has such a strong ground on what it is to have that combination of both youth and adults and those both, both of those perspectives are really important when it comes to major problems in the United States, even in a small communities like Grenada Nebraska. And I think I feel like I could bring in my perspective as a student as well as both of my peers here, bringing our perspectives and our thoughts, just like how we're doing now, I feel like it's really, really important to the mission, to their mission as an organization, and to our mission as students as well.

 

Mitchell Roush  06:28

What's been your experience with mentoring?

 

Zuri Gomez  06:31

To me, well, it's kind of like what Reagan's experience is like, but it wasn't really an organization that's already established. So I, me and a few other girls as a part of National Honor Society for our project. It's like a passion project. We did femme power.

 

Mitchell Roush  06:48

Yes! Okay, yes. Let's talk about femme power.

 

Zuri Gomez  06:51

So we, like we went to an elementary school here, and we talked to a bunch of young girls about what community, the importance of being in the community, the importance of being kind to each other, because, you know, you they're at the age where they don't really know what, like, a lot of those things are the opportunities within this community that are there. So we kind of taught them, like, the things about, you know, being kind and, like, what it's like to be a part of the community, whether that's volunteering or just being a good help in your school, things like that and like, they're like, Wait, What? What? Like, they didn't even know what a community was. So I feel like that was pretty a good, strong way to inform them that way, yeah, and guide them that way.

 

Mitchell Roush  07:32

I'm so glad you brought that up and shameless plug. Like, thank you for the invitation to come check that out. We wrote an article about femme power because you had stopped me in the hallway and said you should come check this out. Yeah. And it was awesome. It was so cool to see the younger students, like not just learning things, but connecting with y'all as high school students, and realizing like this also means community too, not just our classmates, but I can be in community with high school students, and that's a big difference maker.

 

Zuri Gomez  08:00

We just hope we left that little impact in their hearts, and you know, they can keep doing that as they grow older.

 

Mitchell Roush  08:05

Absolutely. Angie, all right, why is it important to you to be involved in the work of mentoring across our state?

 

Angie De Orta  08:12

Well, there's a lot of people in Nebraska, and everyone is just so different. And so I think it's just so important, especially it's like youth like me, Reagan and Zuri and everyone else in the mentor Nebraska Youth Advisory Board. I think it's so important to have that diversity in there. Yes and like, as a Mexican American, I think it's really important that I have a voice and I can speak for like people like me it and have an opinion just on anything that has to do with that adult connection, because just the connection between adults and the youth is already so important. And then if you put in all the other people in Nebraska like how different everyone is, it's just so important that I can get a say to speak for the people that are like me?

 

Mitchell Roush  09:02

Yes, absolutely I can't. Yes, that enough like student voice is just as important as adult voice, I think, and the representation factor is huge. So along those same lines, I want to ask this question, and anybody can answer this, but Angie, since you've got the mic, we'll start with you. What's one thing you wish adults better understood about students?

 

Angie De Orta  09:24

I wish that adults just understood that everyone is so different, and not everyone thinks the same. You know, there's people that are going to have an opinion on this, and then other people are going to disagree with that, and that's okay. I think that adults just need to understand that not everyone has the same mindset. Not all youth think the same way, and everyone's gonna have their own opinion.

 

Mitchell Roush  09:46

That's such a good word. Zuri, I want you to answer the same question. One thing you wish adults better understood about students like yourself?

 

Zuri Gomez  09:54

We are Gen Z, and that we're so different from the way they grew up, and that we're exposed to so many. Different things. We were born in the digital world. We have cell phones, and we grew up with what's it called, just that, that digital what's it called exposure? So social media is a really big thing now, and it's always been a big thing, and it's now part of our youth. While adults may not have had that exposure, we have been growing up with that kind of exposure. And you know, we've been seeing like, we like, there's many different perspectives out there, and social media, like, plays a strong part in, like, sharing messages. And while there is bad stuff about social media, there's also really, really good stuff about it too, being able to share the messages, being able to know the news immediately, right away, there's so much, and I feel like we are really exposed to that. So I feel like our the way we grew up, our perspective, is different in a way, from how adults were. So I feel like knowing that difference is really important, and it's really important to to share that difference, because that way we can come to a common collaboration like that,

 

Mitchell Roush  10:58

even just purely from the standpoint of y'all have only been in classrooms that have had personal technology. You've always lived in a world that's got pocket sized technology, right? Like my daughters, while they don't have phones or social media yet, because they're super young, they still live in a world with it, and they're aware of it, and they've got Chromebooks in their classrooms, very different than when I went to school, right? And so that is just a fundamental change. How could that not make things a little bit different in terms of the way you view the world? But it's still perfectly valid. Reagan, I want to ask you the same thing.

 

Reagan Kort  11:29

Yeah, I more on an overall perspective. I wish that adults better understood the capability that young people have, absolutely putting more trust into the hands of youth, even starting at a young age as a mentor, I focus a lot on empowerment and confidence in building that, and I think that starts with adults believing in the youth and that they're going to take their communities in the right direction in the future, and they're going to grow into adults that are confident in themselves and their capabilities, and they're going to take action in their communities and be good people, and that starts with the trust that adults can show youth and supporting them as they mature and go through life.

 

Mitchell Roush  12:16

Our students are capable of incredible things and will show us the way if we just let them so yeah, I'm here for it. I love that such a good word.

 

GIPS COMMERCIAL  12:29

Public Schools and news flash, registration for the 2026 27 school year is now open at GIPS. That's right. Registration for Grand Island Public Schools is now open for preschool, elementary, middle and high school. March 31 is the deadline to request placement in your neighborhood school. Go to gips.org/registration for more information and to register your scholar. Today, we're ready to make the next school year a great one. Join us. Go to gips.org/registration to learn more and to register your scholar for Grand Island Public Schools.

 

Mitchell Roush  13:02

You I mentor Nebraska's mission is to close the mentoring gap, and so I want to talk to you all from your perspective, in serving on this Youth Advisory Board, how do you think that Youth Advisory Board is helping to close the mentoring gap?

 

Zuri Gomez  13:20

Yeah, so far, like, I've enjoyed like going to the meetings and like being able to talk to Melissa, because I feel like she being able to talk to her, like us youth, being able to talk to her so openly and so honestly, is also really important, because, like, it starts that foundation of like communication and actually getting forth to what's it called, understanding each other. And mentor Nebraska is such a good program, and they have such good exposure to what it is, getting, becoming known and being really exposed in social media. And I feel like being like, having a lot of more of our participation in social media. We recently did a podcast as well that was really important, and it made a really good impact into the not only the organization, but in into the communities here in Nebraska as well.

 

Reagan Kort  14:09

I would say, working with Melissa as an individual and mentor Nebraska as a whole. Shout out to Melissa. Yes, shout out. She's amazing. She's the best. But working with mentor Nebraska, and having a lot of communication with Melissa, there's such a level of respect that she approaches us with and she meets us where we're at as youth, wants to hear our experiences, our genuine thoughts and opinions and all that stuff, and so helping involve our perspective as youth more in her mindset and her perception is in kind of bridging those two experiences and different life stages has been really beneficial to, I think, the board's work as a whole. And like you said, closing that, closing that mentoring gap.

 

Mitchell Roush  14:57

So Angie, I want to, I want to come to you and. And ask, what's a skill that you've learned or maybe sharpened as you've experienced serving on the Youth Advisory Board? How has this helped you?

 

Angie De Orta  15:09

I think the biggest skill that I've like developed, or would be like my communication skills, especially because I've had to do, like, a lot more talking, and I've had to share my voice a lot more than I did before, which is amazing, by the way, you can do it, yes I can. And I think just communication overall would be the biggest skill that I've developed through the the mentor Nebraska advisory board, because we're just getting that exposure to speaking with adults, even if it's just Melissa right now, hopefully in the future, it's a lot more, because if it just starts with Melissa, it's kind of getting us comfortable right now and then that is going to help us, like, actually get our voices even out further, like we are doing right now, just communication.

 

Mitchell Roush  15:59

But that's a that's a big deal, right? Because that also speaks to confidence, that speaks to valuing what you have to say, and that speaks to wanting to help other people, like there's so many things wrapped up into that in growing as a confident communicator. So I'm so glad that's been your experience.

 

Angie De Orta  16:14

Yes, it's really like the foundation work for everything else. So building that skill has just been super important to me.

 

Mitchell Roush  16:22

Rock on Zuri. How about you? How has served on this advisory board with mentor Nebraska? Been helpful for you?

 

Zuri Gomez  16:30

To me, it's been very helpful in helping me grow into becoming more open minded. I feel like the exposure to talking to an adult like, they have a different perspective. Like, yes, we have our parents, and they talk to us and, and just hearing that wisdom, you know, not just from Melissa, but from the many other what's it called grown ups here at grenades, Senior High and everywhere, everywhere else in the community, is really important. And it is just really wonderful to just see that perspective full of wisdom and and it's really closed that gap between the youth and the adult, not just the adult and the youth as well.

 

Mitchell Roush  17:08

Cross generational connections like that's such a big deal. So I'm so glad to hear that. Reagan, how about you? How has serving on this board been been helpful for you?

 

Reagan Kort  17:18

I would say that serving on the Youth Advisory Board has helped me increase and strengthen my empathy as an individual. We all on this board have such different backgrounds and identities, and being able to see how those all fit together and weave together makes such a great team. Is has just been amazing to watch, and being able to step back and look at things from my peers perspective, and for them to do the same for me has been really impactful and just shown me, you know, the importance of putting yourself in someone else's shoes, and how that can be beneficial to mentor Nebraska's mission as a whole.

 

Zuri Gomez  17:56

Big shout out to Melissa! We love Melissa. She's our favorite team, Melissa. Make sure to check out mentor Nebraska's Facebook or Facebook Instagram. They have such important people and like, there's so much messages out there of what their mission is and so much more details. So shout out to the entire mentor Nebraska, by the way,

 

Angie De Orta  18:17

Just shout out to the organization. Shout out to the organization.

 

Mitchell Roush  18:21

Thank you. Love it. Thank you Reagan Zuri and Angie for being here and for sharing your voices. More importantly, thank you for what you're doing to make your school, your community and your state better than it was yesterday. We're proud of you.

 

Mentor Nebraska Commercial  18:43

Are are ready to become a mentor? Mentor Nebraska is here to help get you started. Right here in Nebraska, 1000s of young people are looking for someone to show up, listen and believe in them, that someone could be you and honestly, getting started is easier than you think. Take that first step today, visit mentor nebraska.org to find a mentoring program opportunity near you. Show up, make a difference. Help build a stronger, more connected Nebraska, because every young person deserves someone in their corner.

 

Melissa Westbrook  19:21

Hi, my name is Melissa Westbrook. I'm an associate director for mentor Nebraska, and I have the privilege and the pleasure of working with our youth advisory board. Fantastic.

 

Mitchell Roush  19:34

Melissa, thank you for being here and for making the trip all the way to Grand Island.

 

Melissa Westbrook  19:38

It was chill. It was a nice, quiet drive, and it was

 

Mitchell Roush  19:40

cool to see that you got to see in person the students that you've been working with virtually so much and everything, which is really cool.

 

Melissa Westbrook  19:47

Oh my gosh, they melted my heart like just listening to them. They're so articulate, they're so talented, like visionaries on every level. And to hear them share about their passions and their projects and the things that they're working. On it. It's just such a gift to be, like, front row seat to their greatness. Like, I just love being a part and watching them do their thing. And that's truly what this whole purpose is, is, you know, young people have the voice. We just need to pass the mic. Like, that's what they they just need the mic, and they need the box to tell it.

 

Mitchell Roush  20:16

Show them how, and then get out of their way. Like, that's why I say all the time. Like work like this, like work like you're doing my job. Like we get some we get the coolest gigs because we get to watch students do what they're capable doing.

 

Melissa Westbrook  20:30

Absolutely, and just facilitate as much as we can a safe place for them to experience life and to have, like, those communication growth experiences, or just life growth experiences, and know that, you know, they're supported and they're advocated for, and their voice matters. Their opinions matter. We talk a lot about how, you know, as young people, we start with this really open funnel type concept of life, these ideas, these energies, and then, you know, life happens, and it gets compacted and smaller and smaller, like a funnel. And, you know, you get to be our age, and we're like, No, you can't do that. Or this is the parameter we were taught. And they're like, but why? And you have to ask. You have to interrogate yourself as an adult, like, but why? Right? You know? Why not? Where is my adultism blocking their ability to create a better system, or for us to meet a need better, or to close the gap better. And so, you know, it's so exciting to hear them talk, because they just blow my mind with their ideas, because I have to unlearn so much of the things that compacted my vision that they haven't had happen to them. And I'm just like, yes, give me that. This is beautiful. Like, yeah, just want to give them all the credit, because they're, they're phenomenal. We have, you know, we have nine. We started with nine. I'd say through the year, we've had about like six, six to seven active members, including all the amazing young women who are here today. And so it's just been so cool to just like, listen to them, you know, all year long. And I can't wait to keep doing work with them.

 

Mitchell Roush  21:57

So let's, let's zoom out a little bit. Yeah, and let's assume maybe some of our listeners are new to mentor Nebraska. So give give me your elevator pitch. Why does mentor Nebraska exist? And what is the work that you do?

 

Melissa Westbrook  22:10

Absolutely, mentor Nebraska is a champion of mentoring. We're 25 years this year, so truly, our job is to be a champion for mentoring programs. Sometimes people think that we are delivering mentoring directly, and that's not true. We're here for advocacy, for education. We're here to provide resources and support. We're here to connect programs to best practices, research based best practices. You know, so many programs, you're in the thick of it, you're in a reactive mode. You have so much going on, and we just really want to show up and be a partner to you and be someone who can provide resources, who can, you know, help you with background checks, who can help you with you know how to approach your program. What is your staffing need? You know, mentoring staff, any staff that works with young people face burnout. So what types of trainings and tools can we put in your toolbox to help you feel that much more equipped to do mentoring and operate a mentoring program. But also, like I mentioned, advocating at a higher level, advocating in politics, in bills with the legislative you know, make y'all are heavily involved at that level, absolutely, because mentoring should be a part of legislation. Knowing that young people are growing up without a mentor, caring adult in their life is a direct issue. You know, that's impacting their trajectory. And we think about mentoring. You think of a positive impact on a young person's trajectory. You know, it's not about saving them because they're already so capable and amazing, but how can we be and create this positive interaction for them in their life and and help them connect to a caring adult who can continue to help them rise and to cheer them on? And you know, it's I'm so fortunate to work for mentor Nebraska, because we get to do this work where we get a cheer for programs. We get a cheer for mentors. We get to connect mentors to mentees. So let's say there's a person who's really interested in being a caring adult and being a mentor, they can use what's called the mentoring connector to find maybe what programs best fit like their their schedule or their needs. Same thing for a person or a caregiver or adult, looking for a mentor, for their young person, helping to connect and recruit for our program, so that way their name is even more out there than maybe normally would be. Market for them, as best as possible.

 

Mitchell Roush  24:18

And it all just comes down to, like you said, the invaluable impact of having a safe, trusted adult in the life of a young person that makes such a big difference, and that's what y'all are championing. So that's mentor Nebraska. So talk to me. How did y'all come up with the Youth Advisory Board, and how did this come together? And how did you end up with three of our awesome Grand Island students.

 

Melissa Westbrook  24:42

We listen, I feel so lucky with them. Um, you know, mentor Nebraska, this has been on our strategic plan for a long time. This has been at the heart because we understand the term like nothing about us without us. So we hear we're working with all these programs who are creating. Creating phenomenal systems and program design for young people, those young people need to be in the conversation. And so it took us some time to get all the right details in place, but we were really able to launch the first nomination form for our youth advisory board last year, and the goal of that was exactly this, to try and incorporate so many phenomenal young young people in Nebraska to give them that platform to use their voice and share. This is how adults can show up for me better in my community. This is what I need from like Zuri said so beautifully, like this is I need you to understand that we're different. We're, you know, a different generation. We see things differently than you we received, I think it was 79 or 80 nominations.

 

Mitchell Roush  25:42

Initially amazing, and from across Nebraska,

 

Melissa Westbrook  25:45

all across Nebraska, you know, from so many communities. And it was so beautiful to see all these caring adults advocate for their young people and read these stories. And it was so hard. It really at a time I was like, we have 40 it was so cool. And so to be have to pare that down a little bit. I'm excited, because I believe in the future, we're going to keep it a little bigger, yeah, but to pare that down and to just really bring forward students that we wanted to even learn more about, and then to launch that, I think, officially, really like September of last year, and getting, you know, we had several Grand Island applicants and nominations, and Reagan and Zuri and Angie, like their stories were awesome and phenomenal. You got three good ones.

 

Mitchell Roush  26:30

If I can be selfish, we're proud of our kids.

 

Melissa Westbrook  26:32

And every time I hear them talk, I'm just like, like, I just feel like I'm just so in all of them. So we're just so grateful. And now, you know, I think we're at a point where we've seen all these great things that can happen. We know so much more than we did last year at this time. And we want to do even better. Yeah, we want to, we want to prune it. We want to improve it. We want to bring in caregivers and guardians. We want to make sure we're really increasing that community voice, get them more project based work, you know, that stuff that they're excited about. And so I know they I think Reagan's leaving us going out of state, but I told her, if she wants to be an alumni to the board, or she can, but I know Zuri and Angie are going to continue to be like such phenomenal assets to the board, and they're going to take that vision they already have, and it's just going to like, Bloom. It's going to be so cool.

 

Mitchell Roush  27:17

Sometimes the obvious things are obvious, but they're still powerful and right, like you're you're here in service of students, of kids, right? And so why not give students the opportunity to share their voice like that? Again, seems obvious, but it's a Brit and you know, if there's anything I've learned in working with students at any grade, K through 12, right, if you ask them for their opinion... they will tell you.

 

Melissa Westbrook  27:41

Absolutely. They'll tell and they'll articulate it. Yeah, tell you, and it's our job not to take it and poke holes in it. You know, I think listen to them. Yeah, just listen and create that space for them to navigate and ask questions with reason, not what, not we don't need to interrogate them, but ask questions that help them build on it and help them flesh out that vision. You know, young people get excited when they see you're all so excited and believe in what they're doing. Yeah? So it's like, Oh, you want me to tell you more about this? It's like, yeah, tell me more. But how can we do it?

 

Mitchell Roush  28:14

Tell me about your experience, like we like they were saying earlier, their lived experiences, everyone's different. So tell me your story, and tell me, how can that influence what we're trying to do for kids across Nebraska? Absolutely, absolutely. What does the future of mentoring look like in Nebraska?

 

Melissa Westbrook  28:29

Melissa, if i The dream in my mind is absolutely closing the gap, but I think what we're working towards is a systemic connection in a lot of fields. So really looking at what is the systemic connection of youth, well being, career and workforce, system impacted youth, you know, education, it's a lot of systems, right? But how can we take this from a, I don't say superficial, but you think about the just the top level, where we're all doing this reactive work, or one off work. How can we make this like a systematic work like this is we need ingrained changes to create mentoring change and long lasting change. So how can we make incorporating youth voice in the consideration of youth well being ingrained in how we teach mentoring programs and how mentoring programs operate? You know, I think what we're seeing right now is you just an influx of smaller mentoring programs that we're trying to get to them quickly we want to be able to get to you. We recently, just started a Nebraska Rural mentoring collaborative, and so that our program partners that are in like Columbus, Kearney Hastings Grand Island, North Platte, we recently invited someone from Central public schools, but getting their voices together to give a different perspective on mentoring and rural Nebraska, not necessarily the eastern side of the state as well, and so increasing that voice, increasing access to grants and funds and and collaborative opportunities together. How can we get these mentoring professionals in the same space? Because we see so much, just Spark. Work when people get to talk to other people who have a shared experience as them, or even, Oh, you came up to that barrier too. How did you handle it? Well, we do this like, oh, I never even thought of that. And so watching, you know, that happen across the state, and we're able to facilitate trainings or to bring groups together, you know, I believe that we will be able to close the mentoring gap. That's the goal, and that's going to always be the goal is, how can we identify the barriers to that? How can we tweak and change and make things more more free flowing and systemic, make things that built in? So it's not just about this person was in this position and they pushed for it like, No, this is built into the work to the core level. And you know, we get to do that through, you know, education, through our success mentors program. Shout out to Elisa. She does an amazing job in Omaha in that programming. But you know, we do it in so many different forms and advocacy, in our partnerships, in our statewide trainings, through no cost consulting, just every way we can so just looking at ways to continue to do that and continue to have experiences like we do now, and bring these young people and their voices to the forefront and say, This is what they need. And hopefully one day they'll turn around and Reagan, with her mentee at Big Brothers Big Sisters, can ask that same question, what do you need? Because it's going to be different than what Reagan needed. And so continuing that respect for the next generation's voice and and continuing that evolution of programming. It can't be static. It can't be this is it, and this how it's always going to be. It has to be continually evolving in order for us to truly meet the need.

 

Mitchell Roush  31:34

And all for kids. All for kids. Love to hear it. Thank you so much for being here, Melissa. And more importantly, thank you for what you're doing to shape the experiences of our students here in Grand Island and to bring mentoring to the forefront for kids all across Nebraska. Thanks for having us. You got it.

 

Mitchell Roush  31:56

Thank you again to Reagan, Zuri, and Angie for being not only who they are, but for making our community, their school and our state better by being student leaders who are leading the way and using their voice to make a positive change in their communities. And thank you to Melissa Westbrook from Mentor Nebraska, for being so generous with her time and creative energy, and for joining us on this podcast and for giving an incredible mentoring experience to our three students. And of course, thank you listeners for joining us here at "The GIPS Cast".  We wouldn't be here without you. And if you enjoy this episode or you enjoy this podcast, we would love it if you gave us a rating or a review on your favorite podcast platform, whether that's Spotify, Apple podcasts, iHeartRadio, or wherever you are listening to us, it will help other people discover us along the way. And of course, be sure to check out gips.org.  That's your hub for all of your information and resources and articles about Grand Island Public Schools. Of course, don't forget to register for the upcoming school year. That deadline is just around the corner. Information on our summer programming is dropping really soon, and parents, if you're listening to this, we would love to hear back from you on our annual school culture and climate survey that is currently in your inboxes, waiting for you to drop in some feedback for us as well. So I think that's it for housekeeping. Thank you again, listeners for joining us. We will be coming back at you soon with some more great stories from Grand Island Public Schools.

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