Each year, Communities In Schools strives to empower thousands of students to stay in school and achieve in life. Often, we see this create a ripple effect, and now a former CIS student, Nancy Guevara, has committed her time and dedication to give back to her peers and the community by mentoring other students facing similar challenges with similar goals and aspirations.
Ten years ago, Nancy was a CIS Dallas Region student. She participated in our sister agency’s programs while she was in middle school and up through her sophomore year of high school. Nancy says that when she was in middle school, she did not understand herself or how the world worked, which made school a scary place for her. However, her mentors supported her by getting to know who she was, listening to her, and checking in on her. Now Nancy is a student at the University of North Texas and this past fall when she took a class that required volunteer service, she chose CISNT and mentored students at Rodriguez Middle School in Denton. When Silvia Saju, CISNT Site Coordinator at Rodriguez, first met Nancy, they bonded over their passion for the mission of CIS. It did not take long for Silvia to have full confidence in Nancy’s ability to connect with and understand her students.
Nancy began by recognizing each student as an individual before working to create an approach to help them overcome the barriers they were facing. She identified their interests and built a bond with each student based on their personalities, not past experiences. Using her background as a former CIS student and this focus on relationships first, Nancy helped students improve their grades and develop better interpersonal skills through playing educational games, studying school topics in a group setting, and implementing friendly competitions both school-related and not.
As Nancy pursues a degree in Social Work, she understands the importance of mentoring more than ever, and she feels delighted to provide supportive guidance and academic assistance to younger students. Nancy shared, “It is important for teens and young adults to have a positive influence in their lives. By having a mentor, students can have someone to look up to that is personalized to them and their needs. Someone to help them in school and in life, who will not judge them but listen to their needs and overall be a person they can talk to.”
We are so thankful for Nancy’s positivity and enthusiasm in creating a safe place at school by sharing her own experience. Mrs. Saju admires Nancy for using her life experiences as motivation to empower students, while giving back to her community. Nancy says it best: “Knowing that I was there for someone or helped them through a problem in their life is one of the most rewarding things that I could ask for.”
If you would like the opportunity to empower a student or simply want to learn more about our volunteer opportunities, please check out our website at cisnt.org/volunteer or email our Volunteer Department at volunteer@cisnt.org.
