News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Nine Upper Cumberland counties still lack the needed number of Tennessee Achieves mentors.
These volunteers serve to encourage high school students using the Tennessee Promise next year. Director of Mentors Tyler Ford said about 1,900 volunteers are needed state wide by Friday.
“We truly do believe that in the coming year this rule will be more important than it has ever been before,” Ford said. “Students are going to need support for the next year. It is just a simple reality. We want to make sure that every student has a mentor, and we are able to reach this goal in the next few days.”
Ford said the positions will be virtual next year. Mentors only spend about 15 hours annually calling and video chatting assigned students.
“We are not going to ask mentors to visit schools, to meet in person,” Ford said. “We will provide tools, resources and a virtually mentoring platform to make virtually mentoring possible and really easy and efficient.”
Jackson, Overton and Fentress Counties are among the highest in need of volunteers. Cannon, Dekalb and Smith Counties are the three that do not need mentors.
“You really only need to be over the age of 21 to serve as a mentor,” Ford said. “You do not have to have expansive college goer knowledge. You do not have to have a ton of personal experience with college. You don’t even have to have a college credential.”
Ford said Tennessee Achieves provides all training and resources needed for the position. Tennessee Achieves will host two 15 minutes webinars Thursday for more information. Sessions will be offered at 12:00 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.
