Mentors change lives every day. Meet Steve, a professional, family man and Achievers For Life mentor who’s helping a middle school student stay on track for graduation.
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Tell us about yourself.
My name is Steve Horne and I work for Bank of America. I have a wife and four kids and they’re all teenagers now, crazy years in life. And I actually have a thirteen year old, which is the same age as the kid I mentor here at the school.
Who can be a mentor?
I think anybody can be a mentor. I think that if you’re an adult and if you’re relatively solid, you can make a great difference in somebody’s life.
What has your mentee taught you?
My mentee has taught me to actually just be there for him. He gets very excited when I come by and say, ‘hello,’ and he gets bummed when I miss a week. And you know that’s the biggest thing they care about, that we’re there for them. They want someone to look up to and someone to learn from.
What’s something you and your mentee enjoy doing together?
We have a lot of fun going out and playing football. So, that’s my favorite memory with my mentee. We’ll usually … during lunchtime at school here I grab him and we go outside and just throw the ball and forth and we have a great time. He loves it.
What changes have you seen in your mentee’s grades?
I think he did get motivated when he got a mentor to get them up to B’s and A’s because we talked about it, and now that he knew someone was accountable he started working on those. You know, I think it was math that was a little bit weak for him. So, now he’s really getting to be a B- and A-student, which is, you know, at least where you want to be to be successful. So, it made a difference in his grades.
