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You Can Mentor is a network that equips and encourages mentors and mentoring leaders through resources and relationships to love God, love others, and make disciples in their own community. We want to see Christian mentors thrive.
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Speaker 1:Find out more by following us on social media or going to our website at youcanmentor.com. You can mentor. What up, mentors and mentoring leaders? Hey. I'm here to talk about the National Christian Mentoring Gathering.
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Speaker 1:Sign up today. Alright. Welcome to the You Can Mentor podcast. This is your best mentoring friend, Zach, and I'm with John Shearer. John, how's it going today, my man?
Speaker 2:It is good. Yeah. It's another great day. So, great.
Speaker 1:Well, I met John a couple maybe it's a year ago through one of our good friends, mister Ben Solomon. Yeah. And, John, just like people have been talking about academy 4 for what seems like years now. Like, everyone who I meet is, like, you have to find out about academy 4. You guys have to hear about them.
Speaker 1:They are doing amazing work. So super excited to hear about you, John, and super excited to hear about academy 4 and all the great work that you guys are up to.
Speaker 2:So Awesome. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. For sure. So, John, so how's it going today?
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's good. You know, it's typical day where I feel like I I've, had to put on a a bunch of different hats and do a bunch of different things, but, that's kinda what makes the work we do fun and interesting. So, you know, the thing about Academy 4 just involves so many people. We have, you know, local church partners, we have community partners, we have our school partners, we have our donors, our volunteers.
Speaker 2:And so that's what makes the work so fun and interesting is just interacting with all those different people, but it's also what makes the work really hard if I'm being honest.
Speaker 1:Yeah. It's
Speaker 2:a it's a lot of folks to to kind of bring together to to make what we do happen. So, yeah, today's just been another one of those days where, you know, got to got to be around a lot of lot of different folks and it's enjoyable. So
Speaker 1:That's awesome, John. So you guys are in Fort Worth. Is that right?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So we started here in Fort Worth. This is actually our 13th year to do the program. And so, I I love, you know, as you've said off the top that, oh, you know, I just keep hearing people talk about academy 4. That's that's really incredible.
Speaker 2:In some ways, we still feel like even in our own backyard here in Fort Worth that we're we're still a pretty good kept secret. And we really don't wanna be. We really want more and more people to know about it. And so, yeah, we were in 55 schools this year. Most of those are here in the Dallas Fort Worth area, Tarrant County, but we also have 13 schools in Austin.
Speaker 2:And we have one one our little outlier is in Memphis, Tennessee. So
Speaker 1:Okay. Okay. That's awesome, man. So how how often do I you guys did go out to Tennessee?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, myself, I I try to be out there at least once a year, but, as a staff, it's probably at least every other month we have somebody going and just just checking in on the program and and and really starting to plant the seeds for further growth in that area as well. So
Speaker 1:So who has who has the better barbecue, John? Is it Texas or is it Tennessee? It's a big question.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I I'm not sure I'm the best arbiter for that, but, you know, Texas brisket is just hard to beat. So I I don't I don't know how you you you could walk away from that. And being a lifelong Texan, I mean, I'm gonna have to give the nod. So but I'll tell you, it's good.
Speaker 2:Both places are good.
Speaker 1:John, so did I hear that you, graduated from Texas Tech? Is that right?
Speaker 2:You did. Actually, yeah. And you you you kinda caught me. I'm I'm I'm wearing the colors today. I got Texas Tech shirt on, so I did.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I I grew up out in Lubbock, and, you know, kinda like Mac Davis. I thought happiness would be Lubbock, Texas is my rearview window. I really when I graduated from high school, I wanted to get out as fast as I could. And thought thought the pathway to do that would be through football.
Speaker 2:And, didn't didn't quite have a body that made it through even high school football, unscathed and and got some advice from doctors, you know, your your career needs to end now. And so, you know, passed up on an opportunity that I did have and said, well, I'll stay in Lubbock for about a year and then, you know, go to tech and get get started on college, but I'm I'm gonna get out of here. But just found it was a whole different town, when when I was able to go to school there and and loved it and loved my experience there. And that's where I met my wife, Fort Worth girl, and and she brought me back to the to Fort Worth. So Okay.
Speaker 1:Okay. That's awesome. So I have been out to Texas Tech once, back in college. So I went to Avalon Christian, which is Yeah. Kinda out there.
Speaker 1:And, man, Texas, Texas just a whole new world, man. Good old West Texas.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So what what a lot of people don't know, it is, the biggest contiguous campus in the United States. The only thing that's bigger, and and, we don't count this because it's it's an academy, is Air Force Academy. So the campus itself is is huge, and it really is. It's kind of the hub in so many ways of of the community.
Speaker 2:And, yeah, it's it's a fun place to be. I still have family out there and, love to get back as often as I can.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, man. So tell me how you got involved with academy 4 and serving kids and being a mentor and all that stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Well, so I'll I'll try to I'll try to give you, I don't wanna take all the time on the pod podcast with with this story, but I'll try to give you a a pretty concise version, which really for me started with an illness. I was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2011. And, up until that point, I had not done anything in the nonprofit world. As far as work with kids, that really consisted of like coaching, you know, middle school basketball teams and and and, that kind of stuff, and like serving, some at the church, you know, and and youth programs and that kind of thing.
Speaker 2:But that really wasn't my background and and really wasn't hadn't been my experience. And so, I tell people, you know, I had had cancer and and, this this will sound weird. It it was actually a good experience. Not the cancer part. Let me be clear.
Speaker 2:That part really stinks. But, just really the people that that show up in your life in those kind of moments and and the support and the love that you receive and get, it's it's it's pretty incredible. And and for me, I had an easier path than a lot of people do with with that disease. And so, within about a year, I was kinda back on my feet, having my own business, during those times. And, and, you know, while you're not working, if you have a small business, you you have to pay others to do your work.
Speaker 2:So I had a line of credit. I was paying that down. Got that taken care of, had new business coming in. And and I, man, I just thought everything was great in life. And I thought I'm squared away.
Speaker 2:This is this is where I need to be. This is what I'm doing. And my wife came to me and said, hey, you need to do something else. And I I thought I was in trouble somehow around the house. I wasn't doing enough dishes, whatever.
Speaker 2:You know? And, she said, no, it's not any of that kind of stuff. It's, you know, you're just not passionate about what you do anymore. And I probably sounded like a 4th grader and said, well, no. You don't know.
Speaker 2:You know, that's not right. And, you know, like a lot of guys, you know, I've been blessed to be married to my awesome wife, Melissa, for 32 years now. And, you know, you realize, okay, first you better kinda consider and listen to that. And then and then you realize, you know, they're usually right. And this was the case.
Speaker 2:You know, a few weeks, I was like, she's she's right. And and but yet, I didn't know what to do with any of that. And and so I just started being prayerful about it. And and I felt God putting on my heart, you need to do something has a little bit more redeeming value in the world. Not that I didn't have work that helped a lot of people, I did.
Speaker 2:But I just felt like I called to something more. And so I had no idea what that looked like. I was like, god. Okay. More details, please.
Speaker 2:I mean, could you a little bit more yeah. Work. But none of that was forthcoming. So, I just started looking around, and I found an organization in our community in in Arlington, Texas to help protect against child sexual abuse. And, so that was kind of my pathway into this.
Speaker 2:I worked for them for about 4 or 5 years. And during that time, I knew the guys that started academy 4. And they said, hey. We were aware of the work that you're doing, and we could use some help. We're just kinda getting started on this thing.
Speaker 2:Would you come serve on our board and, you know, help us with some child safety policies and training? Absolutely. And I'll tell you, I I did those things, did them to a a good satisfactory level. But other than that, I probably was not a very good board member. And so, just because I traveled a lot during those days with my job, and I really just couldn't be involved in a in a very hands on way.
Speaker 2:And so all that to say, you know, things started taking off a little bit with academy 4. You know, they went from 1 school to in year 2, it's like, okay, we had a successful 1st year. It was a little rocky, but, you know, what do you do? Well, the people behind this, it was like, well, we start another school. And so they did.
Speaker 2:And kind of like having kids, they realized that that was not, additive. It was multiplicative. Things got more complex quickly. So it took a little while to kind of sort all of that out. But as we were as we were figuring those things out as a board and a team and growing, we just we just saw God's hand in it.
Speaker 2:And we knew that, you know, okay, there's there's gonna be something here. We don't know exactly what or to what scale, but, we need to be ready for that. And so we started doing some strategy planning. We knew we would have to have a full time executive director. I was like, I hope we find somebody great.
Speaker 2:You know, I'm just I'm excited about that. And in fact, the the the chairman had encouraged me a number of times to to consider that role with the organization, pat me on the shoulder several times, and I just kept saying no. I was like, thank you, but I I just didn't see it. And, even though I said, like, I have this thing I was holding, you know, God's told me, you know, hey, there's something out there for you. You need to do something with a little bit more I just didn't think this was it.
Speaker 2:And and so with that, one Saturday morning, he had texted me, he said, hey, let's go grab breakfast. And so we we met at a Cracker Barrel, and, he just said to me, hey, will you pray about it for 90 days and and just think about, you know, taking this role? And I gotta be honest, I thought that was kind of manipulative. Still do. And we joke about it.
Speaker 2:But, you know, I I respected our chairman and founder, and, so I said, okay. I'll do that. And I knew I was gonna tell him no. But during that time, my travel stopped. I got involved in a way I hadn't been before.
Speaker 2:I tried everything you could do at an academy for. We have an emcee that kinda, does an assembly time. We have the spark clubs. We have mentoring. I did it all and even the behind the scene jobs, and I just fell in love with it.
Speaker 2:And so we got to that point and, it was like, okay. I'm interested. I would I would love to consider doing this. I'm still not sure why you're interested in me, but, yeah, let's let's do this. And so, you know, it was kind of a funny twist and turn at the end, but, all that to say, you know, this was where I was supposed to be.
Speaker 2:And I'd tell people, it probably took me a couple years, to really realize why I was here. And so I I I did a lot of apologizing in those 1st couple of years. This is in February, it'd be be my 8th year to be in this role. And because I didn't have that nonprofit experience, I didn't have the experience in ministry and the children's programs in a in a hands on way. But what our chairman saw me that took me a little bit while to realize, I've done my whole career had been really centered around, learning and development, leadership development, organizational change management, and and really doing that in a consulting kind of way, working with dozens of organizations and and helping them grow, build, scale, all those kind of things.
Speaker 2:And and he knew that if this was gonna take off, that's what we needed. We needed a person who could step in and and really build a leadership team structure, really start to scale the organization, make sure that we could we could grow it in very, you know, intentional, deliberate, and measured ways. And and in many ways, do a lot of the things you have to do to get a business up and running. And and a lot of nonprofits don't start that way, and and don't have some of the disciplines that I think coming in as a for profit person that that we've really developed over time.
Speaker 1:So. Man, I remember whenever we talked on the phone, one thing that that hit me in your story is just how faithful God is and just how God, God really does. He who calls us as faithful, he will surely do it. And so often I talk to so many people who are in charge of nonprofits or in charge of different things. Now I never planned on being here.
Speaker 1:Well, it's because God qualifies the called. Very rarely does he call the qualified. Because when you think you know what you're doing, then you stop depending on him, you start depending on yourself, and he wants us to depend solely on him.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I I'm laughing because I mean, I just I wouldn't have even imagined this for myself, you know? I mean, in in the way that, practically I didn't see it, but then just from like dreaming standpoint, I couldn't have dreamed something like this for myself. It's better than anything I've ever thought of doing in my career. And I've I've been really fortunate.
Speaker 2:I tell people I've been a guy that's very blessed to have work I've always enjoyed and always really was able to to embrace and be passionate about, but nothing like this. And I'm not saying I'm also a person who just thinks, man, the Lord gives us tremendous amount of freedom in our lives. And I don't think I had to say yes to academy 4. I don't think that had to be my path. But I think in that that search of and and trying to be faithful to the calling that God had put on me to say, hey, find that thing that has, you know, that that redeeming value.
Speaker 2:This was an option. And and it was served up in a way it's like I couldn't imagine or plan for it, and it's better than anything that I would have ever dreamed. And that's that's just fun because then you know it's not you. As you're saying, it's it's it's God's hand. It's God's work.
Speaker 2:And he's he's just bringing delight and joy in ways that, yeah, I I wouldn't even know to ask for. So
Speaker 1:As I get older, you know, I'm just like, man, maybe his ways are better than my ways. Like, maybe maybe God actually knows what he's up to. It's crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Amen.
Speaker 1:Alright. Well, let's talk about academy 4. Okay? So your mission is to equip communities and churches to build lasting relationships with schools and families. And so kinda like you said, you're in 55 schools right now.
Speaker 1:You've got another 50 on the waiting list. I mean, you guys are up to some awesome things. So if you could just kinda share about what is academy 4, what does it look like on kind of a day to day basis, that'd
Speaker 2:be fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Simpler way to to encapsulate that mission is just like, hey, we change lives through relationships.
Speaker 2:And and that's really what all the work that we do is about. We really have 3 programs that we do. There's our signature program that's academy 4, and that's where we provide every single 4th grader, a mentor. And there's, it's it's a 3 hour program. We're there during the school day, which is significant.
Speaker 2:We're taking up instruction time. There's 2 90 minute blocks. The first 90 minutes is, are called spark clubs, and it's all kinds of enrichment clubs. We have everything from cooking to sports clubs, music clubs. We have, science clubs, all kinds of enrichment activities that a lot of our students being in economically disadvantaged schools, might not normally get to do.
Speaker 2:But then we also have our mentoring time, and that's kinda that's that's where those deep relationships are built. But significantly, with these clubs, kids get to do 2 of them, 2 45 minute clubs to stay in the same clubs all year. There's another 2 adults in each of those clubs. So there's 4 more adults that are pouring into these kids in a very positive way. But that mentoring time takes them deeper with that 1 on 1 time they have with an adult.
Speaker 2:It's appointment time, we all come together and serve. So it's once a month on a Friday afternoon. And so with that, those relationships go deep quick. And but every month, we talk about leadership together, and that's about half of the 90 minutes that the the volunteers give up of their time to spend with those kids and pour into them. And then the other half is spent playing board games, doing crafts, reading a book together, but just keeping conversation going, keeping connection going.
Speaker 2:And so I call it the unstructured time, excuse me, unstructured structured time. And then our mentoring time is very purposeful and very structured. And we can talk a little bit more about that later. But, and so that's really kind of in a nutshell, the 4th grade program, 55 schools, we're serving, about 4,200 4th graders this year. It takes a little over 5,000 adults to to be able to pull that off.
Speaker 2:Because if somebody's out, we wanna have a substitute, you know, and our club leaders and the rest. So it's it's a lot of people to organize and and bring together to make this happen. And then what happens with those 4th graders when when they spend that after they spent that year with that mentor, and and they've they've talked about being leaders, they've set goals, you know, they check-in with each other on those goals and and are really growing and and developing in those ways. Well, in that 5th grade year, they turn around and mentor a 1st grader. And so they teach back at a very simple level, that leadership lesson that they learned from their mentor the year before, but then they also, spend some time, or most of their time, I should say, reading together.
Speaker 2:And so it's kind of a reading buddies program the way we we've we've designed that. But what again, the the thing that runs through it, and this is what we found with the 4th grade program when we started it, we really thought, well, it's the leadership traits. That's the thing that we're bringing to the table here. But we really realized it's the relationships. And so that's true in the 4th grade program hugely, and that's what we base the whole thing on.
Speaker 2:We have a research based framework that we use to develop those relationships. But also in that 5th grade year, it's the relationships really. Yes. It helps the 1st graders gain confidence in their reading and expand, you know, their reading abilities. It also brings confidence to the 5th graders because a lot of our 5th graders aren't reading on level.
Speaker 2:But when they can go in and they teach the 1st grader, what we hear from the teachers is, wow. It's giving them confidence to to grow in their own reading. So we see that as kind of an extra benefit if you will. And then the third thing that we we do and we focus on is a newer program for us. We've been doing it the last 3 years, did a pilot, and then have really been going strong last year and this year.
Speaker 2:That's our 4 families program. And that's just out of a a place of, you know, we've been coming alongside these parents year in, year out, you know, if they have a 1st grader, if they have a 4th grader, especially, and a 5th grader, you know, we've had multiple touch points with them, during during their career, their elementary school career with their children. And, you know, we've been coming alongside them, but we just realized the more we can equip parents, the more impact that's gonna be made here because nobody has a greater influence or impact on these students than their parents. Our mentors have tremendous impact on them, but it doesn't compare to that of the parents. And so, we've been able to, with our church partners, really have some conversations around parenting.
Speaker 2:We've got some curriculum that that we've adopted and used, for that. And it's a 6 week program that we do, And they come together, they have a meal together, the kids come, we provide childcare. And then they just sit around and and talk about the topic that I think is the great equalizer for all of us, it's parenting. Because we've all had our wins and losses as parents, and it's very humbling topic. And so we just meet on this ground that that crosses socioeconomic boundaries, crosses racial boundaries, and and the sharing that happens in those sessions is just incredible.
Speaker 2:I always thought it would take a while for parents to open up and get comfortable with our volunteer navigators and with each other, but it's instant. The connections are rich and full. There's, you know, often, you know, big emotions and tears shared even on that that first night. And so those are the kind of the core things that we do always tell people, you know, organization can't do more than about 3 or 4 things very well. So we're we stopped there.
Speaker 2:Other than we do have a small scholarship program that we we we do, we've had students that have been in the program as 4th graders come back, and serve as a high school junior or senior. And we've been able to award some scholarships over the last several years. And we're gonna do some things to kind of expand that and find some community partners who can help support those efforts, and stay in touch with those kids from the time that that they leave us in 5th grade, until they they get through high school and hopefully into college or on a on a great career path. So.
Speaker 1:What I love about. Academy 4, John is you guys have seemed to tap into the most important parts of a kid's life. You've got church, you've got their school, you've got their education and you have their parents. And so can you just kinda share with me how how important is it and how do you build lasting relationships lasting partnerships with the churches and schools and parents? Yeah.
Speaker 2:The the key thing is it all starts with our church partners really. You know, I tell people there's there's two reasons we we partner with churches. 1 is pragmatic. We need a lot of volunteers for the work that that we see needs to be done. And so, churches are stable, influence our community, and and they're good at getting volunteers.
Speaker 2:The other reason is, you know, we were started by, believers, followers of Jesus. And so, we just really, believe in the church's mission to love their neighbor. And so we give them a easy tool to do that. And so when we talk to our church partners, we say, this is that one more program that we're inviting you to do your run. And and in a matter of fact, we're not gonna charge you for it.
Speaker 2:Although, I will say most of our church partners end up giving to the to the organization over time. But we're also not gonna ask you to run it. And that's where the expense comes into the program for us. When I was on the board, I thought this was a crazy thing that we do, but we hire a part time site coordinator for every school that we're in. And so that's the person, that's the glue, that I think you're kind of looking for there.
Speaker 2:Like, how do you bring these people together? How do you keep them together? Well, we provide that person that's on-site, that's helping to recruit the volunteers along with the church. And the churches usually can get about half the volunteers that they need, which is, you know, first, we thought that, well, that's that's not good enough. Like, what what do we do?
Speaker 2:And so even in that 1st year, they sort of retained the community. And and that's what we've learned. That's the beautiful thing about what we do. They they can't get them usually. It's very, very rare.
Speaker 2:You know, and and a matter of fact, we don't have a circumstance at all where it's all church members. It's usually half or more come from the community. And what that's done is it puts the church in this position of doing something really good and really positive in the community that they're spearheading, that the community can be involved in. And and it doesn't reflect negatively, in any way, in the community. And there's because there's too many I mean, if we're being honest for a minute, there's too many things sometimes as a church does step out and do that, may have great intentions, but don't always have good results.
Speaker 2:This has not been one of them. And and the key thing that we really try to establish with them is we're hiring this person so that you don't have to lay this down at some point. Because we know that budgets change, priorities change, things change for churches. We want you to be able to be a sustainable force, in the school, in this surrounding community for as long as you wanna be. And so sometimes we're helping churches go deeper because they're already there, they're already established, they're already, you know, doing great things in a school maybe, or doing great things in community.
Speaker 2:And we just help them take it deeper. And sometimes we're a starter kit, for the churches to begin to really reach out into the community and and to to be that positive influence, a positive force. And so and for the from the school side, you know, sometimes there's a reluctance to engage with faith based partners because, sometimes trust trust is violated. We're that that party that kind of stands in the middle that says, we're gonna make sure people follow the rules. We're gonna make sure that when they're here, their their objective is is to love and to care.
Speaker 2:It's not to to proselytize. And and we know that when people show up, that they will share the love of God when they're there. They will share the love of Christ. And we also know that, you know, Christians aren't the only one who can love on kids. And so together, we can come together on this, we can agree on it, and we can do something really positive.
Speaker 2:And that and so that's what happens. And it works itself out again and again, year after year. The most remarkable thing that I can tell you about academy 4 is that this is our 13th year to do the program and we've never gone into a school and left. And so it it has this intentionality this day to say that, we want to to do life with you. We wanna come in and be here for the long haul.
Speaker 2:We don't wanna come and do a program for a year or 2 and see if we can maybe make a bump in some test scores, which sometimes happens, or, you know, positively affect your attendance, which always happens, or positively affect, you know, the behavioral referrals with the kids, which also always happens. But we wanna be here for the long haul and and really start to see some transformation in your school and in the in the bigger community. And so yeah. So that's how it works. That's that's what we're up to.
Speaker 2:And, you know, we we just see that being positive for everybody involved. And and, you know, the great thing is, you don't have to be a part of a church to to to do this. You don't have to be affiliated any way. We we're doing things, during the school day that respect any kind of restrictions that the school might have, on, you know, there's no religious content, overtly religious content in the the program. There there's nothing that's going to be offensive.
Speaker 2:We just show up with an agenda to build relationships and to love kids. The way we talk about it, we want every kid in our program, but really every person associated and every organization associated with our program to feel known, cared for, and loved. And and if we can do that, it it makes a big difference in the life of each 4th grader. But it makes a big difference in the school, makes a big difference in the community, and it makes a big difference in those volunteers because, I think that's what most people don't see. And and another reason why this works is they're gonna get back more than than they anticipate that they're giving.
Speaker 2:And the reward that they get is is huge. And so we see retention rates. This this this last year, our retention rate was 71% of the volunteers, that did the program last year came back this year. That's pretty extraordinary.
Speaker 1:So, John, what I what I'm so intrigued by is your ability to simply put love your neighbor. And for me, at least whenever I was running a not not for profit the 1st couple of years, I was so fixated on numbers. I was so fixated on mentoring. I was so fixated on my goals. Right.
Speaker 1:I want to get more mentors. I want to get more kids. I want to get more after school. But when you start changing your perspective and saying, how, how can I love? How can I serve?
Speaker 1:How can I go to the kids, go to the parents, go to the schools, go to the, you know, city and just say, how can I love you? How can I serve you? How can I help these kids just feel known, feel loved, feel, you know, like they matter? And when you are a light, when you come in and you say, hey, my job is to make your job easier, magical things happen because there's so many awesome things in that. There's honor, there's building relationships, there is service.
Speaker 1:I mean, like, you get to show up and people will say, man, my day is better because they showed up. And when that happens, man, there is some favor and doors magically fly open. It's crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I know. And and that's exactly what we've seen. You know, and and it's funny, it all it all really started, from a very disconfirming experience, that our our founder and chairman had. His pastor had told him, said, hey, you know, you you've been very generous with your resources, but you really need to get your hands dirty.
Speaker 2:And so he started mentoring in an every week program and just failed at it. He was a very busy guy, into a lot of things, entrepreneurial. And so all that to say, he just could not protect that every week time, and he's like, I'm doing more harm than good. And so what did he what did he do? Well, what a lot of successful people do when they have a disconfirming experience is like, hey, we gotta come up with a better way.
Speaker 2:We gotta come up with a plan that will work for people like me, because he knew he wasn't alone. And and that's what we've tried to do is we've tried to create easy on ramps for people to to do this. Whether that's our church partners and just saying, hey, we'll provide the staff to to make this work. Or whether that's our volunteer saying, hey, we're gonna make this commitment simple. It's once a month.
Speaker 2:It's not every week. It's 90 minutes. But we're gonna pack those 90 minutes full of so much, engagement, so much relationship building, and so much fun that, you're you're gonna see it's worth every minute of your time. And that you you build very quickly a very high impact relationship with these kids because we're very purposeful about our time. We we we really struggled with that, you know, at first because we get questions all the time like, well, 90 minutes, that can't possibly make a difference.
Speaker 2:I mean, how how could that make a difference? And and, you know, pragmatically, you know, we we started with well, I mean, just think about it. If you had 90 minutes with somebody that you cared about, un unfolk I mean, completely focused time, no interruptions, wouldn't you wouldn't you value that time? Well, yeah. Okay.
Speaker 2:You know, we kinda started people there. But as we did the program, we really started getting questions in the other way. Like 90 minutes, how how do you get so much done? One principal asked asked me that the that question in this way. She said, you know, we're a little different than some of your schools.
Speaker 2:They're they're a small private school. She said, we have a lot of volunteers, same demographics as the other kids that we serve. But we have a lot of volunteers on our campus. They come in for tutoring, they come in for mentoring, they come but and and most of them more often than you, but we don't see connections like this. The kids connect faster.
Speaker 2:They they they're more excited about seeing their mentor than any other thing that we do. They're adopting the leadership traits that you guys teach. She's like, how do you do it? And and really, it took me a minute. This was still pretty early in our existence, and I'm just like, I don't have a great answer for you.
Speaker 2:And I was like, and that's not not a good a good place to be. So we really went back as a team and said, what is it about academy for where you can make that impact? And first of all, is we have a common purpose and it's very clear, and we have a plan. Every month when you show up, we you know what to do. As a matter of fact, we're gonna take and and do take the first 10 minutes when our volunteers show up on campus, and we just remind them what we're here to talk about today and what we're gonna do.
Speaker 2:And we remind them about child safety. So key. And then, you know, we also said, you know, it's it's so important that that people, really are focused on, you know, what is what is the outcome that we're trying to achieve and the goal. And it's it's very simple for us. It's building a positive relationship because we know the value of that.
Speaker 2:We know kids need 5 or 6 to 6 succeed. And we know that 4th grade is a is a particularly pragmatic window to show up in the development of a kid and make a big impact, bigger than you could in 3rd grade or bigger than you could in 5th grade. And so that's where we focus our time and focus our energy. And and in that process, we also uncovered a study that just said, it was a it's a program that excuse me, a study that looked across mentoring programs, a meta analysis, if you will. And one of the things that that the study concluded is it looked across all these different mentoring programs and practices and what makes them work and tick and all that kind of stuff was that what, the amount of time spent is less consequential than what gets done.
Speaker 2:And that is academy 4. We don't spend a lot of time, with the students. It's once a month, it's 90 minutes, it's 9 times during the school year. But what gets done is big are big things. We talk about things of consequence.
Speaker 2:Every month, those leadership traits, we're very purposeful in that. But we also have this research based framework where we're intentionally building relationships. It's from Search Institute. It just says, if you express care, provide support, challenge growth, share power, expand horizons, that'll be a positive adult to child relationship. Well, when we we came across that research, we was like, well, we need to train our volunteers on that.
Speaker 2:And and we did and we do, but that's not enough. Adults need more help than that. We'll we'll forget. We do forget. So that's built into every part of our program.
Speaker 2:Our curriculum, our leadership curriculum, every question we ask, every activity that we do, we are doing one of those five things. And it's also just in the overall design of the programs that that those things are always happening. So we know that positive relationships are being built. So the the detail, the purposefulness that's gone into this is is huge. And that's why in a short amount of time, we're seeing extraordinary results with what we do.
Speaker 1:There's a there's a lot of things that are sticking out to me, John. It's, one, just if you're a mentoring not for profit, if you're, if if you're investing into kids, 1, the importance of building those church partnerships, of knowing the churches. I mean, you guys just go out to lunch with a pastor every quarter to be a light to a school because you never know what will happen. You don't ever know if they're gonna need volunteers or if they're gonna say, hey. Come on in and serve.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. But the most important thing, John, is no adult likes to feel stupid. Yeah. No one likes coming to something and them kinda feeling unprepared. Like, that's a nightmare, especially with kids.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:So you can help build relationships. You can help serve kids by being intentional, by being structured, by being organized and helping these volunteers out. And John, I mean, like, 71% of mentors come back. That's a huge number. That's amazing.
Speaker 1:And it sounds like they come back because they had a good experience where they felt valued, they felt cared for, and and they knew what a win was and they knew how to, how to make a win happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah. No. I think I think that says it well. And and and really, you know, just to underscore what you're saying there, for our adults, it is it is being able to have that experience. And and and the environment that we do it in where they serve together, it's that sense of community as well.
Speaker 2:And so, you know, they they may not every day that they walk away, maybe their student's having a bad day or maybe they're having a bad day as a as a volunteer. They may not walk away feeling like, I really know I moved the needle today with this kid. But they will walk away knowing collectively, we absolutely moved the needle. I mean, because you see it. You can't be in a in a cafeteria, which is usually where we are on the campus, serving with whether it's 50 or or a 100 plus adults.
Speaker 2:You can't be in that room together and not see the real impact that we're making because the engagement, during that time is just completely off the charts. And yeah. And and to your point, it's just what has really happened for our our churches and and really the whole volunteer base is, this wets their appetite, if you will. We often have people saying, I wanna do more. Not everybody can, but I wanna do more.
Speaker 2:How can I go deeper? And is that willingness is there, the needs interestingly enough seem seem to arise and come and those two things can come together. And it's looked like a 1000000 different things. Everything from, you know, a campus during a crisis in Austin, where there was a, you know, no clean water in a certain area and and and just the church saying, we'll, we'll bring you water, and and did. You know, something that simple, but it made such a big difference in their day to day rhythm in life at school and they could keep going in a way that they weren't.
Speaker 2:2, we we had a a father that was murdered in his driveway, and a family that now a refugee family that now had a mom who does not speak English, 5 kids in the family, a couple of kids that had been involved in our program. And and now, people who don't just see that story on the news because it was on the local news and be like, oh, that's awful. And we just move on to wait, that's that's in that's Fitzgerald. You know, that's the school that that we're connected with. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2:What do we need to do? And so, you know, they provided money that was needed for the family to keep going and pay rent and do that kind those kind of things. They provided food. They were able to get some kids in grief counseling over the summer, at a summer camp. And and the pastor of that of of the church that was behind that, and and it was church people, it was also just other volunteers in the community, you know, mobilizing to do those things.
Speaker 2:But that pastor said, you know, we're 2 blocks away. We didn't have a relational connection to this school. And, you know, we'd done some backpack drives, that kind of stuff, but we probably would have heard about this or or known about it. And so like, I don't know that we would have responded. And certainly not in the way that we did.
Speaker 2:And because we wouldn't have known. We didn't have a personal connection. And more than anything, that's what we see that Academy 4 do, does is it helps give people their who. We all care about, those that are marginalized in our communities, those that may be struggling financially or in other ways. And we all care about kids in our community that are particularly living in those kind of circumstances.
Speaker 2:But sometimes we just don't know who they are. And and I know that was me. My wife and I, we would we would do anything that was that we're invited to do that was needed in the community, but it seemed to look like backpack drives. It seemed to look like food drives. Don't stop those things, by the way.
Speaker 2:Those those are all very important and needed. The needs are real. But if that's all we do, we're stopping short because what people really need, it's not it's not all of our stuff. It's not all the it's not our culture. It's not it's none of those things.
Speaker 2:What what they need is us. They need relationship. They need people to care about them. And guess what? That's what we need too.
Speaker 2:So many of our volunteers, you know, I'll tell a quick story about a volunteer named Larry. He's an attorney. And he was diagnosed with cancer during the school year. And so he went to his site coordinator and said, hey, I'm gonna have to miss some sessions. But I want you to know I've organized all my treatments so that I don't have to miss a single academy before Friday.
Speaker 2:And she said, Larry, this is why we have substitutes. She's like, you need to take care of you. You need to take care of your health. And, you know, if you have to miss some, well, he stopped and he said, no. Because I don't know what my mentee, I'll use the name Kaden, I don't know what Kaden would do without me.
Speaker 2:And when the site coordinator was telling me this story, I said, you know what he's really saying, don't you? And she's like, oh, yeah. He was saying, I don't know what I'd do without Kaden. And and that's what I think a lot of us as adults miss is how incredible these kids are. And our one of our toughest schools that we went into, a school where a lot of people said, don't do it, don't try.
Speaker 2:You know, it's it's too hard, too rough, too many challenges in the school. I'm just, stubborn or I don't know, maybe it's arrogant enough to to think, you know, no, we're gonna try.
Speaker 1:We're gonna try. We may
Speaker 2:fail, but we're gonna try. And we did. And we showed up and we're there. Finally, it's there's 2 100 and 54th graders in the school. We had to do the program on 2 different Fridays, divide the kids in half, do half of them 1 month one one week of the month, and half of them another week of the month.
Speaker 2:And and we're there that first that first month. All the volunteers are in the cafeteria. All the kids are mentoring. We see the connection that we always see on academy 4 Fridays. There's this this healthy, wonderful in the room.
Speaker 2:And I see the principal coming out of the room. There's tears in her eyes. And, I'm like, okay. I've seen this before, but I better go check. And and I went to her and I said, hey.
Speaker 2:Is everything okay? And she's like, yes. And her name is missus Montez. She's an incredible lady. And so she said, yeah.
Speaker 2:Everything's fine. This is just so incredible. It's overwhelming. And, but are they coming back? And I I I said, well, yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, the other group's coming next week and this group will be back on the 22nd or whatever next month. No. No. No. That's not what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:So we have programs like this, maybe not exactly like this, but some programs similar to this come on campus before and they come for a time or 2 and then we don't ever see them again. Are they coming back? And, I mean, I didn't know any better. I just said, well, yeah. I mean, that's our track record as academy 4.
Speaker 2:We've we just always come back year after year, and our volunteers come back month after month. And and so this is the thing I really wanna share in that story, because this is a burden that I carry with me that she's put on my heart. And she said, well, I hear you, said, but I just need you to to let these volunteers know that there's nothing wrong with our kids. And and that has stuck with me because that is the absolute truth. There is nothing wrong with these kids.
Speaker 2:And a lot of times we assume that there is, especially, you know, if we're living this, you know, middle class lifestyle, upper middle class, whatever that looks like for people, we assume, oh, they need what we have. They they need our stuff. They need culture. They need what whatever whatever. And the reality of it is, these kids have so much to give us if we'll just show up.
Speaker 2:And you learn from them, you grow from them. And and sure they're learning from us as adults as well. But the reciprocation of this relationship I think is what really makes it work and what makes people come back year after year after
Speaker 1:year. Like, kinda like what we were saying earlier, John, you know, his ways are better than our ways.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Perhaps
Speaker 1:perhaps God knew what he was doing when he said, hey, love God, love others.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And me and my selfishness and my me, me, me perspective, I'm like, well, I'm gonna go love these people because they need me. They need what I have. And perhaps the Lord's up there being like, actually, Zach, they're gonna give you more than you ever imagined.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And That's spot on.
Speaker 1:And I wanna invite mentoring organizations, churches to a different perspective. Maybe what we're doing is more than mentoring kids. Perhaps what we're doing is more than academic tutoring or summer camps, but we have the opportunity to ignite and rally a community, a city to love our neighbors, to get to know our kids. Like whenever a kid goes from a kid to James, it's a game changer. And so if we can be the bridge, if we can be the point where people join us to love kids, like that can transform a community.
Speaker 1:And you guys are pulling in churches. You're pulling in neighbors, you're pulling in schools, you're pulling in kids. You're and, and you. Have an opportunity to do that. If we can think higher than mentoring and think kingdom, think loving others, think love our neighbors, think how can I get as many positive people in the lives of these kids as possible just to see what God can do?
Speaker 1:Because it's not our job to fix, but so often it's our job to invite people to love. And in that love, the Lord moves.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I couldn't agree more. Yeah. There's just so many ways to divide ourselves and so many ways, to separate. It's easy to do.
Speaker 2:We can talk about the last election. We can talk about, you know, differences in in our skin colors. We can talk about differences in, you know, our our cultures and our lifestyles and the things that we have. But to be able to, even if it's just for 90 minutes once a month, bring people together and have them put all that aside for just a little while and just spend undivided attention with the kid, it just it melts everything else away. And, it it does something that, you know, crosses those divides very importantly, I think, because I I don't think, you know, as as a Christian, I don't think, you know, and a follower of Jesus, I don't think my mission is to do things that are going to, separate me from people in my community.
Speaker 2:I think my mission is to do things that are gonna let me be in my community, and and trying to bring them together through loving kindness. And I'm not always great at that, but to have a construct and a tool that that helps me do that and it helps invite other people to do that, I think it's just so so critical, so important, and so needed. And at the end of the day, I think God will use that in powerful ways for his purpose and his kingdom and his time. And at the same time, I think in the immediate now, it also just makes the places that we live and work, better. Because that's that's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 2:We have we have groups of people taking off from their jobs together to come and serve in academy 4. And, sometimes invited by somebody who goes to the church that's sponsoring the the program, and sometimes not. Sometimes just about an organization that hears about us. I I hear you guys are doing positive things in the community. We'd love to be a part of that.
Speaker 2:And so we just create this space where it's comfortable, it's safe for anybody and everybody. You don't have to be a certain faith. You don't have to go to a certain church or have a certain background or whatever. I mean, we have people of all faiths coming and serving together. We have people from all races, you know, all kinds of ages.
Speaker 2:We have 16 year olds to 90 year olds in the program. And it's just there there is something about it that, I can't take credit for. None of us can take credit for. It's just God's provision in a way that I think is really rich in our communities, and and we're really doing some some powerful things.
Speaker 1:Man, I could talk all day, John.
Speaker 2:Me too. Me too. Obviously.
Speaker 1:K, buddy. So tell
Speaker 2:us how
Speaker 1:to tell us how to find out more.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So our website, academy4.org, that's the easiest way. There's a ton of information there. We're on, you know, of course, all the socials, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn. So those kind of things you can find us there as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And and just feel free to reach out. I'm easy to I'm easy to connect with john@academy4.org. I try to answer, every email I get. And, so would would love to hear from you.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And just the way that we are growing, and and the heart that our board has is is that we just wanna go where people who who know about us and and love what we do wanna take us. And so that's why we've ended up in some places like Austin and and Memphis, or, you know, especially Austin. It was our 3rd school ever was in Austin. You know, again, coming as it was about the time I was coming onto the board.
Speaker 2:I looked at that and I was like, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense strategically. But, you know, this doesn't make a lot of strategic sense all the time. You know? We do things strategically. And but sometimes, God just opens doors and and provides paths that that we couldn't even imagine.
Speaker 2:And and we haven't regretted walking through a single one of those doors. So, yeah, we we're just at a place where we've we've been able to receive some good recognition as well. Are getting out there a little bit more. We won a governor's award this year, which I don't even know anything about that. But turns out it's kind of a big deal, kind of fun.
Speaker 2:But all that to say, the word's starting to give out. And so we're looking to to take this wider across Texas. But, you know, wherever else, the Lord would lead in that. And so, but, yeah, so we just encourage people to reach out and and connect. And, and and we too, you know, one of the things that's big for us is just partnering with others in the community.
Speaker 2:And so whether that's another nonprofit, whether those are are businesses or or others that, you know, wanna wanna help do more in our schools, it doesn't have to be through academy 4. We're happy to be that connector and happy to be, a a a force in the community that that helps mobilize way wider than the scope of the work that we're doing because it's all needed. It's all important.
Speaker 1:So much good stuff here today, John. Thank you so much for your time. That's academy 4, like, the number 4. And so, man, such such a great conversation with you. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Zach, thank you. Man. I appreciate the work that you're doing and and the platform that that you have to to really, you know, help organizations like ours, get the word out and and really, just, you know, emphasize the great importance of mentoring and and building relationships, especially for our kids. So thank you. Appreciate the
Speaker 1:work you do. I wanna see you at our next conference, John.
Speaker 2:I wanna see you there. Okay. Alright.
Speaker 1:But alright, guys. Thank you so much for tuning in, and remember this, you can mentor. Thank you. Thanks for tuning in to the You Can Mentor podcast. Give us that 5 star rating and share this podcast with your mentoring friends.
Speaker 1:Learn more at youcanmentor.com. Thank you.