The Monte del Sol Charter School Mentorship program represents one of several catalysts for the implementation of a larger educational model called the CelebrateYouth Transformative Education Model. The model was conceptualized and created by Paquita Hernandez in 1980. Dr. George Otero - Director of the Center for Relational Learning - was a founding Board member of Monte del Sol Charter School and he introduced Ms. Hernandez to Mr. Tony Gerlicz, Head Learner at Monte del Sol. Mr. Gerlicz chose the program as one of the cornerstones of the school curriculum. Today the program plays a leading role in connecting students to the community through a well-defined structure and project-oriented experience.

The program matches students with adults in the community around areas of mutual interest. It is about making the community a laboratory for learning. It links one life stage to the next, one professional generation to the next. Mentors offer skills, knowledge, experience, wisdom and leadership. They are role models with the power to educate, encourage, sponsor, coach, protect, counsel, cultivate and nurture. They provide significant relationships, the passion for learning, serious engagement, exposure and visibility to their protégés. This represents the short-term goals.

The long-term goals are to provide students with an educational experience that is truly transformative and changes the way they view learning and education. By participating in the program over a period of three to four years, students begin to understand the application of other disciplines to their specific fields of study and its connection to other disciplines. For example, by mentoring with an architect and working on a specific design project, the student learns how mathematics, zoning, physics, ecology, economics, income levels, budgets, etc. must come together and be understood for the project to be feasible. They begin to view and appreciate learning and skills in a way that goes beyond the traditional classroom. They also begin the process of becoming the subjects of their own learning rather than the objects of teaching.

The dream is that as the protégés experience the ownership and responsibility for their own learning in a relationship different from that with their parents and regular teachers, they find their own personal voice and work toward potentially significant contributions and they discover what leadership, social responsibility, contributive participation and ethical consciousness are all about. Both parents and faculty play a key role in the program as well.

The program also represents an opportunity to create institutional and community changes in the perception of education by changing the mindset about how education can actually transform both individuals and communities.

For further information, please contact Ms. Paquita Hernandez or Ms. Katherine Sienecki at 505-982-5225.