On Wednesday, May 19^th, representatives  from mentoring programs across the state convened at the 2010 State Mentoring Conference at the Holiday Inn in Rutland. Over 90 people were in attendance, including guests from Maine and New York.

Dr. Susan Weinberger, founder of the Mentor Consulting Group and board member for the National Mentoring Partnership, served as the keynote speaker. The conference also featured a variety of collaborative mentoring workshops that were run by mentoring program coordinators from around the state.

Weinberger, who is known throughout the mentoring community as “Dr. Mentor,” gave a speech on the history of mentoring, tracing her way from Homer’s companion “Mentor” in The Odyssey to First Lady Michelle Obama’s current high school mentoring program in Washington D.C. She also reflected upon her personal experiences with the mentoring community over her 36 years as a high school teacher and administrator. Keeping with the theme of the conference, “Mentoring Matters,” Weinberger told the group that she has “never witnessed a more powerful intervention than mentoring.”

Videos:

*** View Workshop Presentations / Slides ***

Highlights:

• The DREAM Program Makes List of Best Places to Work!

Survey: If you attended the conference, we hope that you may take a few minutes to share your feedback in our survey.

Vermont Mentoring Partnerships hosts a network for mentoring professionals in our state; are you a member?