Youth mentoring expert to talk at University of Auckland

Youth mentoring expert to talk at Parliament and the University of Auckland

An academic leader in youth mentoring and classroom equality and fairness will deliver two lectures in New Zealand this month.

Professor Toni Zimmerman is a distinguished teaching scholar at Colorado State
University.

Committed to reducing disparity, Professor Zimmerman is a guest of the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Education and the New Zealand Youth Mentoring Network.

Her first public lecture ‘Mentoring At Risk Youth: a model to address problems in mentoring practice and literature’ is hosted by Youth Minister Nikki Kaye on Thursday 19 March in The Theatrette, Parliament Buildings, Molesworth Street, Wellington.

Professor Zimmerman will describe her work with young people in the youth justice and social service system and how she, along with colleagues at Colorado State, developed and implemented the Campus Corps youth mentoring programme in response to an identified community need to better serve at-risk youth.

Students from over 85 different majors work one on one with at-risk youth ranging in age from 10-18 who are referred to Campus Corps from the university’s community partners within the juvenile justice system of Larimer County, local schools, community agencies, and directly from families.

Student mentors spend four hours once a week with their mentee in a group setting to provide academic support and career planning, encourage positive social skill development, assist with goal setting, and implement wellness programming. Strong bonds are developed over the 12 week programme between mentors and mentees. Graduate students and experienced mentors serve as mentor coaches to provide support and guidance during Campus Corps.

Then, on Tuesday March 24th Professor Zimmerman will speak at the University’s Epsom Campus on ‘Teaching to a Diverse Classroom’.

She will discuss how any classroom must – at the core – provide fairness and safety to all students. In a motivational and interactive public seminar, she will describe how practices that embrace cultural humility can increase student retention and academic success.

The talk will include a description of the FAIR curriculum – an experientially-based curriculum that encourages an understanding of social injustice in classrooms.

Professor Zimmerman has extensive expertise in service learning and has led students to more than 15 countries to work within underserved communities. She has had the privilege to work with and learn from distinguished leaders in the field of human rights such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu on the Semester at Sea programme (who noted her work as compelling and essential) and Julienne Bond (civil rights leader who worked closely with Martin Luther King).

A further youth mentoring event at the University on Thursday March 26 is already booked to capacity.

Both the Wellington and Auckland events are free.

To RSVP for the Wellington lecture on Thursday March 19 click here.

To RSVP for the University of Auckland lecture on Tuesday March 24 5-6pm click here.

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