Another Great Year for the Student Mentor Program

This year's pro­gram had 3 participants: one senior from Hobbs High School, one junior from the Alternative School, and one junior from Kingsgate Academy.  Throughout the year, an occasional friend of our mentees would attend with them and mothers partici­pated several times.

All of the participants met once a month with guest mentors in dif­ferent professions presenting interesting programs.  This gave every young lady an oppor­tunity to benefit from the experiences and expertise of many women in a variety of professions.  Our mentors each shared their backgrounds, challenges and tri­umphs on their personal journey to the current point in their life and profession.  We had some excellent programs and those of us on the committee felt like we also learned a great deal.

Our programs started in October with three of the LCWN Mentor committee mem­bers.  Cortney Whitley, Mrs. New Mexico 2007, Susan Brandon, retired teacher and counselor, and Louise Hudson, owner of Collage, a wellness business, shared their stories and career paths.

In November, Stephanie Shoultz, school nurse at Hobbs High, shared her story.  Laine Boomer, a petroleum engineer with Schlumberger, gave great insight into a woman in a man's world as she shared her career story.

January found our own Dr. Marianne Westbrook psychologist, sharing her story.  She is the owner of Zia Consulting and teaches at USW.  We also enjoyed an­other LCWN member, Belinda Morris, Executive Director of the Regional Educa­tion Cooperative #7, telling her career story.

In February, Belinda shared some good information about many of the require­ments to become a missionary, including monetary and scholastic requirements.  Virginia Teague, President and CEO of Lea Community Federal Credit Union and a member of LCWN, gave an outstanding look at a life filled with successes and achievements without ever leaving Lea County!  She also shared some of her challenges with cancer which we all appreciated, especially our mentee who is a cancer survivor also at age 15.

The year's final program in March started with a Pizza Party and then Dr. Michele Clingman, Dean of Enrollment Services at NMJC, shared not only her story, but also quite a bit of valuable information about college requirements.  She told about scholarships, monies available, tests that were needed and much more to help these girls be prepared for continuing education.  LCWN member Dr. Lynda Lakin, owner of Insight & Applications, had a very full life and career story to share.  She ended our program with a Dress for Success lesson for the mentees and presented each girl with a piece of jewelry.  We finished by presenting each of the girls with a polo shirt with the LCWN logo on it.

Our sincere thank you to all of the women who shared their time with our pro­gram.  The evaluations from the mentees indicated they really enjoyed this year's program and took away information they intend to use to enrich their lives.  Thank you also to Trinity Lutheran Church for allowing us to meet there.

Pictured are (left to right):

Front row - Amanda Gomez, Danielle Hernandez, Valeria Estrello; Back row - Sharon Clark, Belinda Morris, Louise Hudson, Susan Brandon. Committee member Cortney Whitley is not pictured.