From October 2009 to May 2010 I volunteered as a math mentor for the Higher Achievement Program. Mentoring was not something I wanted to do for my practicum project initially, but I knew I wanted to mentor sometime in my life. I found out about the Higher Achievement Program casually in conversation with a woman from Intervarsity Christian Fellowship who said they always needed mentors. I applied and received the position of 6th grade math mentor. My responsibilities were to learn the math lesson, present it in an interesting way, and assist my assigned group during Gathering Time (Gathering time is when the entire community would come together to discuss a common assignment with a social theme (Community Meeting Sheet).). However my goal was to give the students confidence and the knowledge that they were capable and effective individuals in their community. The most difficult part of my task was learning how to present information that was boring in an exciting way while still allowing the student to learn. Often I teetered on the extremes of this. My students would have fun, but not learn a lot, or they would be bored beyond relief but learn the lesson. Another challenge was that something that worked perfectly could never be used again, because next week my students would be bored of it. I constantly had to change my strategy for teaching every week. I never thought that mentoring would be easy, but it did present unexpected challenges. Even more so it produced unexpected success and joy. When my students were learning and having fun, it was an amazing feeling for the both of us. This was the joy that made a mentoring relationship worth the trials and hard work. These movements are when students gain confidence in the subject matter and in themselves. Seeing that they can do the problems, inspires more confidence than telling them that they can do the problems. I know that my students are going to grow up and do great things. I know that they are going to be better citizens because they are surrounded by a community of adults that are supportive and effective at meeting their academic, social, and moral needs. I am very proud to say that I was a part of the Higher Achievement Community. However I think that being a mentor taught me more things than I taught them. Being a mentor called me to go beyond my expectations for myself and become introspective about what I was presenting to my two female students. I told my students to be the best and I wanted to instill in them a passion for success. At the same time I cannot settle for mediocrity in my own life. I was a role model and there was no disclaimer that I could use to say that our lives were different or that they shouldn’t be like me. I had to show them that success was attainable. My actions were held accountable by two six grade girls. In addition it gave me a greater respect for people that teach. There is no way one can deliver a lesson properly, without having presented it before in practice. There is so much work in making a subject relatable to your audience. To be a good and interesting teacher is an amazing feat. The amount of work put into creating a lesson plan, organizing it, creating a hands on activity to accompany it, practicing presenting the lesson plan, and then presenting a lesson plan, takes a true love and appreciation for the subject matter and a love for teaching it. I thought I wanted to be a college professor, after doing research, before I started mentoring, and now I know that it is something I really want to do with my life in addition to mentoring for the Higher Achievement Program.