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CUSP Mentorship Initiative

 

 

Mentorship Initiative

General Information
The CUSP Mentorship Initiative, formerly known as Cornell Urban Mentorship Initiative (CUMI), offers Cornell students the opportunity to mentor a middle-school student from a public school in an at-risk neighborhood of New York City, while collaborating with other Cornell mentors in a weekly service-learning seminar.  

Highlights
  • Any Cornell undergraduate student can apply.
  • Participants collaborate in a weekly seminar.
  • The initiative works with a number of Cornell- and Brooklyn-based partnerships.
undefinedCUSP Founder Ken Reardon guiding the UE student mentees on their February trip to Cornell's campus
Photo Credit: Sarah Smith
  • Students go through a rigorous mentorship training process.
  • Mentors correspond with mentees in online forums.
  • The initiative combines an array of diverse members.
  • Field trips take place over night in Ithaca and Brooklyn.
  • A transition ceremony marks the turn-over from one year to the next.

 Eligibility Requirements
Undergraduate students from any department, college, or program, who have a strong interest in social-justice issues affecting the poorest members of the New York City community, are encouraged to apply. 

Weekly Seminar
The purpose of the three-credit service-learning seminar, CRP 3301 - Urban Mentorship Initiative, is to support students in the process of integrating academic inquiry into the mentorship experience. The class is directed by Belisa Gonzalez, who specializes in race, ethnicity, and social inequality in the Department of Sociology at Ithaca College. Students will complete readings and journal entries, and engage in class discussions with one of the most diverse assemblies of students in the Cornell community.   

An Integrative Approach to Change
The initiative fosters relationships between Cornell students, faculty, and programs and New York City students, teachers, parents, and administrators. The initiative combines the mentor-mentee relationships with a New York City parent-teacher association (PTA), Ithaca-based teachers' workshops for New York City teachers, and the New York City public-school administration umbrella. Current partnerships include the Urban Assembly (UA) Schools System, the Urban Environment (UE) School of the UA, the Cornell Sustainability Hub, and the Knight Writing Institute.  

The Mentor-Mentee Relationship
Cornell students go through a rigorous training process before they are matched with a single middle-school student from the UE School in Bedford-Stuyvesant (Bed-Stuy), Brooklyn. Using an online mentorship program called I-mentor, in addition to collaborative Blackboard and wiki programs, pairs interact regularly in a conversational manner. Additionally, mentor-mentee partners spend time together on field trips to Brooklyn and Ithaca.  
"I'll be taking with me a new respect for the communities we say we're here to serve. They have strengths and riches -- even in their poverty -- that I had never realized or appreciated well enough."  
- CUSP Participant
Diversity
The Cornell mentors, in additional to the UE mentees, create a highly diverse group in terms of class years, interests, activities, memberships, social backgrounds, and socioeconomic status. In 2008-09, initiative participants are characterized by a 30:70 male-to-female ratio and ethnic diversity, and they come from the following colleges around campus: Arts and Sciences; Agriculture and Life Sciences; Industrial and Labor Relations; Architecture, Art, and Planning; Engineering; Human Ecology; and the Hotel School.  

Field Trips and Host Weekends
In-person interaction between mentorship partners is an essential part of the initiative. On overnight trips, UE students visit Cornell to experience college life, and Cornell students visit UE to experience the culture of the New York City public school. These visits improve students' awareness, understanding, and excitement, and help students get to know their partners.  

Final Presentation and Transition Reception
The CUSP Mentorship Initiative includes a final event such as a reception or presentation.