Venture outside of Amador Hall, to the great beyond that some refer to as real life.

Sure, Charles Varano and other professors in the sociology department are great, but how about learning for yourself and looking at some problems that today?s teenagers face first hand. Might even earn extra points with your professor in the process.

Tonight is the last opportunity to earn three units and internship credit in Sociology or Ethnic Studies 195 as a mentor to a Sacramento youth. In the program, you will be matched up with a teenager, aged 14 or 15, who is economically disadvantaged. The gist of the internship is to serve as a positive role model to a teenager who needs help. For three hours a week, you spend time with your mentee in any way that the two of you can agree on. The time can be spent at a baseball game, the mall, the bowling alley, the Peach Pit, or even hunched over a math workbook.

The teenagers in the program are really wonderful. You could be matched up with Ira Sellers Jr., a Grant high school sophomore who lacks in sports expertise (she?s a Raider fan), but makes up for that by being one of the funniest people I have ever met. He really loves getting out of the house and doing things, but he is also in need of a positive role model. Sam Crossen is another youth in the program. He is shy at first, but once you get to know him, you?ll really benefit from it. He loves running, but his real love is art. Perhaps if you?re a runner or an artist, these are ways that you and Sam could spend your three hours. There are many others in the program, and they all have one thing in common: They need a positive role model to guide them in school and life in general.

The program, which is in its third semester, has been quite successful as both mentors and mentees have enjoyed the benefits. The teenagers get the experience of getting away from their family for a few hours a week, as many of the problems that these particular teenagers face are more family oriented than anything else. They also get some insight in to what it is like to be a college student. Sacramento State students get real field experience and the opportunity to put something back into the community. Even if your not driven by a cause as grand as these, you can sign up and get the internship units you need out of the way. All it takes is the hours with the youth, and a paper about your experience at the end of the semester.

The mentoring should not be looked at as a weekly burden either as the average time with the teenager has to be three hours, not necessarily three hours a week. If you and your youth spend a whole day in the Bay Area for example, counting the homeless in Golden Gate Park, that is two weeks that the youth is on his own.If interested in the mentor program, there?s still a chance, head to Amador Hall, room 262 from 5:30-6:30 tonight to learn more about it.

Have anything to add? E-mail Russ Edmondson at [email protected].