You reached this page through the archive. Click here to return to the archive.

Note: This article is over a year old and information contained in it may no longer be accurate. Please use the contact information in the lower-left corner to verify any information in this article.

Experiencing all sides of TRiO mentoring

By Catherine Monson '12
November 2, 2009
"All students need role models," says Kenny Zimmerman '06, a former TRiO mentee and now an adviser in the St. Olaf GEAR UP program.

If one person can attest to the effectiveness of the St. Olaf TRiO Educational Talent Search (ETS) mentoring program, it is Kenny Zimmerman '06. He has experienced the program as a carefree seventh grader, an involved St. Olaf student, and a working adult. Now he is giving back to the program by serving as St. Olaf's Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) academic advisor and a prime role model for younger students. 

ETS, one of the four TRiO programs at St. Olaf, aims to help qualified junior high and high school students gain knowledge about and admission to post-secondary education. The mentoring program is one part of that effort that reaches out mainly to first-generation seventh- through ninth-grade students from low-income families.

Zimmerman views seventh grade, when he first paired up with a St. Olaf mentor through the program, as a turning point. He was attending Humboldt Junior High (currently called Humboldt Secondary School) in St. Paul and unsure about his goals in life. Then he visited St. Olaf on a tour day with his mentor — his first time on a college campus — and decided to pursue post-secondary education, the first one in his family to do so.

“The big thing it did was give me confidence and assurance that I could obtain a post-secondary education,” he says.

As Zimmerman witnessed from a number of perspectives, the success of the program relies on the one-on-one contact between the mentee and mentor. They correspond regularly through written letters and meet in person three times each school year: once for a field trip in the Twin Cities and once at each of their schools. The mentees’ visit to St. Olaf in the spring, when they tour campus, eat in the cafeteria, and visit classes, is a crucial part of the program, says Zimmerman, noting that it can change their whole mindset about college.

“It really gives them first-hand knowledge of what college life is like,” says Katie Olives ’99, director of ETS.

Broadening perspectives
In 2008, 85 percent of ETS graduates went on to pursue a post-secondary education. But Zimmerman has seen the program's impact beyond the numbers. “The biggest things our programs do for students are unquantifiable. We can't document self-confidence. We can’t accurately evaluate a student’s increased understanding of why it’s important to obtain a college degree. We can’t track the extent of the influence a college mentor has. All we know is that our services help balance educational equity,” Zimmerman says. “If TRiO Educational Talent Search hadn’t been offered to me, I can’t say where I’d be today.”

Younger students are not the only ones to benefit. Another goal of the program, Olives says, is to expose St. Olaf students to an unfamiliar environment. “It broadens their perspective,” Zimmerman says.

Zimmerman stayed involved with TRiO programs throughout college as a mentor and “Hoops and Homework” tutor, and graduated from St. Olaf in 2006 with a major in sociology/anthropology.

Shortly after, he entered his current position and now works with teenagers from the same school he attended — Humboldt.

In his work, which takes him back to Humboldt four days a week, Zimmerman often mentions his own success story to the students he works with. It really makes an impact, he says. “All students need role models."

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.