1. Ryan Mackrell

2.  LAMP/PAWS takes place in the Spotsylvania county school district in Fredericksburg, Virginia.  It is a mentoring program, in which every Thursday a bus of high school students travels to Wilderness Elementary School to meet with their respective “buddies”.  LAMP stands for Literacy Advancement Mentoring Program, while PAWS stands for Partners in Achieving Wilderness Success.

3.  The students from Riverbend High School went through a brief training session and were then ready to begin influencing the minds of students.  Students would spend time helping struggling readers, tackling basic math problems, or simply helping students struggling to behave socially.

4.  The job of a mentor is one of significant importance. The student I was specifically assigned to help was a struggling reader who had a somewhat short attention span. At the end of our time together, he was flying through books and could concentrate on his work until it was complete. The change was amazing to witness, and honestly made me feel accomplished – as if I had made an actual difference.