South Peer Mentors: Breaking Down Barriers

South Peer Mentors: Breaking Down Barriers

Walk the halls of Denver's South High School, and it's easy to appreciate the vast diversity of its student population. Sporting everything from headscarves to blue jeans, the 1,400 students who attend South represent more than 60 countries and speak 54 different languages. Even the school's Romanesque-inspired architecture is reminiscent of well-known Italian structures.

For students who take advantage of the school's rich multiculturalism, their years at South are flavored by the interests and tastes of classmates from countries that they may never visit but can experience nonetheless. South offers these students daily, real-life lessons in the meaning of diversity, tolerance, and acceptance – lessons that will help ease the transition to college and prepare them for life in a global society.

The mentor-mentee relationship that has developed between CFES Scholars Fatima Kiass and Luis Lopez exemplifies this harmonious blending of cultures that is central to South's inclusive learning environment. Fatima, a senior, has ties to Morocco, where her father lived until he was 27. In fact, all of his relatives still live there. Her mother is of Scottish and Spanish descent.

Luis's parents were born in Mexico.

Fatima finds their different backgrounds intriguing but also acknowledges a shared characteristic: both students are first-generation college.

"It's one way we can relate," she says.

Although Luis, a sophomore, had met Fatima through his friendship with her younger sister, their early interactions as mentor and mentee were awkward. But once they got to know each other, their time together became easier. Having a community mentor for the last several years, and then peer mentor training from CFES, Fatima was able to assume her new role with a clear understanding of how she could help Luis.

"When I first started mentoring Luis," she recalls, "he was very shy. I would say to him, 'No one can hear your voice. They can't hear what you have to say if you don't say it.'"

An opportunity to express his thoughts would come and go, and Luis would wish he had spoken up.

Fatima would tell him, "You should never feel that way because you don't get those moments back. Speak up!"

"Now he says what's on his mind," she states. "We have lunch together a lot, go to plays together...we talk all the time."

Fatima is headed for the University of Northern Colorado (UNC) in the fall and already feels at home on the campus. Last summer UNC hosted the CFES Summer Leadership Institute, and Fatima was among the 30 CFES Scholars from five Denver-area schools who participated in the weekend residential program. She plans to major in education and, in addition to mentoring Luis, she spends several afternoons a week interning at nearby University Park Elementary School.

To inspire Luis and help him achieve his goal of attending college, Fatima shares her experiences on campus and in the college application process.

"I give him college application pointers all the time, and he watches what I am doing," she says.

Yessica Holguin, senior college and financial aid advisor at South, has witnessed Luis's transformation from a shy, reluctant student to a confident, focused CFES Scholar intent on pursuing college.

"Luis was so shy when he joined the mentoring program," she observes. "He never would consider utilizing the resources around him, like the Future Center (South's college resources room). Fatima gave him 'permission' to go there and access the resources with her.

"Luis was not just shy," she continues, "but also reserved, almost to the point where he didn't seem like he belonged. That's all changed. He has come to belong, taking advantage now of the resources around him."

Holguin believes that bringing Luis to the Future Center was a defining moment for him.

"I was thinking about college but had no idea how to begin the process," Luis says, noting that he would not even think about going into the college room on his own. Fatima "made it OK" for him to do so.

"I support him...he is a very smart kid," Fatima says. "You can help someone because you have gone through it. You can't tell them what to do, but you can show them what you might do. It's their decision.

"Give them tips," she continues. "They have the rest of the world telling them what to do. Not a good mentor…mentors are different. They are part friend, too. All our lives we have people telling us what to do. As a mentor, I share personal experience and hope for the best."

Even as she reaches out to help others, Fatima acknowledges that being a mentor has also benefited her, particularly as she prepares for the transition to college.

"It won't be culture shock for me when I go to college," she asserts. "Mentoring gives us the opportunity to know people that we might not otherwise take the time to get to know...it breaks down social barriers. We are able to learn about other people’s cultures and beliefs and increase our cultural understanding and awareness."

Holguin agrees. "Students benefit from mentoring students from another culture. It opens their eyes to a whole new world. These kids have such interesting experiences and have led such difficult lives. The way they talk to their mentees and share their own struggles...the mentors really step up. Where these kids once felt powerless, they now are feeling powerful. They give themselves permission to empower the other students. It's so amazing that despite the difficult lives they have led they are able to help other students...they draw on inner strength."

Of course not all students have the opportunity to attend a school as richly diverse as South, and from their experiences as mentor and mentee, Fatima and Luis have specific advice to offer these students, particularly as they look toward college.

• Mentor someone who is not at all like you, someone you might otherwise never have taken the time to get to know. You could be the same race and age and still have so many differences. Lack of communication keeps us from learning. People can learn so much from others, even those that seem the most unlikely.


• Get out and meet new people…stay involved in your community. We need to learn now so that it will be easier in the future when we go to college, because the reality of college is that everyone on campus will not be the same.


• History isn’t just about where you came from, it’s about everyone around you, too.


• Keep an open mind. When you go to college and meet new people, instead of thinking that someone is weird, you have to realize that they’re not weird, they’re just different. When you meet people who don’t look or act like you, take time to get to know them.