Duplicate this work on university websites

For 10 years, between 2006 and 2015, interns from IIT in Chicago, and other universities, spent time learning about the work being done by Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present) and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present), then sharing their understanding through a variety of visualizations.

The cMap below shows some of the work interns did.

Archive of work done by Interns from 2006-2015

As you wander through this cMap you'll also want to read this article, where you can find an even fuller list of interns and work they have done.

While there was a consistent flow of interns, they were not coming as part of a strategic plan of the university, to reduce poverty in areas where the university was located, or to support a pipeline of students moving from Pre-K through high school, college, then into jobs and careers.

Thus, you won't find a page on any university website with a collection of articles and intern work similar to what you see on this blog. Or on-going efforts, described in the visualization below, to draw people from the university community and its alumni, along with it's surrounding community, into on-going conversations aimed at "How can we do this better?". 

It does not need to be this way.  Anyone can use this blog as an archive, and a museum, and a teaching tool.  The ideas are as useful today as they were when each project was first created.

The ideas apply to any area with high concentrations of poverty.  The process applies to building a better understanding of any complex problem and mobilizing more people to be involved in creating on-going, long-term solutions.

How to start? Create an independent study program where a few students begin to dig into my blogs to learn what I do and ways the ideas can be part of an on-going university-based strategy, funded by one or more wealthy alumni.

I'll help you.  If you want, students can join the Tutor/Mentor forum on Ning, and I can coach them, just as I did with past interns.  

Or, we can connect on ZOOM, or on BlueSky, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram.

Thank you to interns and universities

This blog was created in 2006 by Michael Tam, an intern from Hong Kong.  It has been used since then to introduce work from many different interns.  I cannot thank them enough for their help.

A few weeks ago I created a presentation to show how I've reached out to universities for their support over the past 30 years.  You can view it in this post on the Tutor/Mentor blog and this post on the Mapping for Justice blog.

My goal is that people who look at the presentation, or skim through past articles on this blog, will see the potential of creating Tutor/Mentor Connection type programs on college campuses where students duplicate this work, but as part of a long-term commitment to reduce poverty and inequality in communities where each university is located.  

My last article on this blog was titled "Adopt the Tutor/Mentor Connection".    

As the first page in the above presentation says, "It just takes two or three people on a campus to launch a Tutor/Mentor Connection."  They could be helped immensely if a wealthy alum were to make a bequest to support such a program for 10 to 20 consecutive years.  

That could be YOU, or someone you know. 

I've been posting archives of newsletters written since 1993, which you can see in this collection on the Tutor/Mentor blog.  They show that the problems of the 1990s are still with us 30 years later.

Until more people say, ENOUGH, and devote time, talent and dollars to long-term efforts that help kids in high poverty areas move through school and into jobs, and help reduce the structural racism and other barriers that make this journey more difficult for some kids than for others, the problem will persist.

I hope you'll be one of those people.

Connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.  Find links on this page.

If you are able to make a contribution to help me pay the bills, please visit this page. 

Thank you for reading and sharing this article.