Teach One to Lead One mentoring teaches students to give back

Students who are a part of the Teach One to Lead One (T1L1) mentoring program from Hamilton Heights High School and Middle School, along with Eastwood Middle School in Washington Township in Marion County, prepared over 18,000 meals for people at International Disaster Emergency Service (IDES).

On April 13, 75 students, mentors and teachers mixed and packaged dry food to feed people in Ukraine, South Sudan, and Honduras.

T1L1 is a mentoring program that takes place in the classroom each week throughout the school year. It pairs community volunteers with teachers to lead students through 10 Universal Principles – key parts of leadership. The principles include respect, integrity, self-control, courage, humility, excellence, compassion, enthusiasm, teamwork, and honor. The students were able to put these principles to use when they went on a service project at IDES.

IDES provides relief to people who are hurting worldwide. That relief is often in the form of help to victims of war, refugees displaced by violence, oppression, or natural disasters. IDES also serves malnourished people, villages living without clean water, medical care, clothing, and shelter, to name just a few of their services.

IDES GAP Director Jody England explained to the students that the food they were packaging would be sent to people who had very little food and often were malnourished. He explained how each bag of food would feed six people. The meals consisted of a mix of rice, soy, dried vegetables, and a supplement of 21 essential vitamins and minerals. They are easily mixed with water and provide nutrition.

In less than two hours, the students were able to package enough meals to feed 18,144 people. England said that was the equivalent of feeding an entire village for one month.

Sara Colter serves as the Area Manager for T1L1 in central Indiana. She explained that the service project is a requirement of each mentoring classroom.

“It gives students the opportunity to do something for someone less fortunate than themselves,” Colter said. “Showing compassion is one of the Universal Principles we teach and this gives them the opportunity to put compassion into action.”

Colter said that many students think of their situation and they may believe they are living in hard times. However, when they compare their life to someone who is living on less than one meal per day, it puts their lives into perspective. They respond with a passion to help.

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Hamilton Heights was the first T1L1 school district in Indiana. Eastwood is the first school in Indianapolis to pilot the mentoring program.

Clint Flanders is one of the original mentors at Hamilton Heights and he currently works with eighth grade students.

“I thought this was a great experience for both schools,” Flanders said. “You saw both groups of students working together to accomplish something good. Our world could use a whole lot more of that!”

Barry and Jane Newborn volunteer as mentors at Eastwood and meet with a group of seventh grade students each week.

“When you look at what is going on in the world today, every kid needs this,” Barry said.

Wendy Libby-Bernstein is on staff at Eastwood Middle School and meets with the students and mentors each Monday.

“I’ve seen so much growth with the kids this year,” Libby-Bernstein said. “They respond to these caring adults who come to school each week to teach them, but also to listen to them.”

Students who participate in T1L1 mentoring are taught to be leaders. IDES provided a very practical and necessary experience for them. That was evidenced by the hard work all the students put into this project.

For more information about the program, visit T1L1.org.

For more information on IDES, including how you can volunteer with them, visit IDES.org.