Spring Branch ISD Featured News

 

Only in Spring Branch ISD could a story like this be woven. In a district whose Core Values include Every Child and Collaborative Spirit, a series of events over the past three years have brought these particular beliefs to life.

“Everything happens for a reason,” said new SpringBoard Mentor Keldric Terrell. He has recently reunited with Daemone, a fourth-grade mentee at Nottingham Elementary. They were first matched as mentor and mentee three years ago when Mr. Terrell was a senior at Stratford High School and visited Nottingham twice a week as part of a peer mentoring program.

“When I first met Daemone, he was shy and we just drew a lot of pictures when we met each week,” said Terrell. “I remember one of the first pictures Daemone drew was of a shark on a football field! So creative!”

During his senior year at Stratford High School, things got very difficult for Terrell when family circumstances shifted, and they ended up living in a homeless shelter. “I had a good support system at Stratford that helped me through this difficult time,” he said.

Terrell was able to graduate from Stratford and attend Prairie View A&M University in Prairie View, Texas, with several scholarships. He is currently back in Houston to help his family and is a manager at the Bunker Hill HEB.

“I want Daemone to know we all go through ‘stuff’ in life, and that doing well in your education is the key to success,” he said. “If I can do it, anyone can.”

While Terrell was away at college, Daemone was matched during second and third grade with a new mentor, Ward Harlan, a member of St. John Vianney Catholic Church. He mentored at least six students in the past three and a half years, often more than one at a time. He even continued to mentor one of his mentees who moved away from SBISD.

Sadly, Harlan was not able to mentor at Nottingham this year due to health reasons and recently passed away.

“He was kind and nice,” said Daemone when reflecting upon having Mr. Harlan as his mentor. “I always beat him at Connect 4 [game], and I taught him how to play chess!”

“I liked everything about Mr. Ward.  He was caring,” said Carlos, another of Mr. Harlen’s mentees and a seventh-grader at Spring Forest Middle School. “He always asked me how I was doing at school and in my classes.  He was a Navy veteran and told me really cool stories about his travels on a submarine.  He never missed a mentoring day – he was always there.”

“It is a great loss to the mentoring world,” said Mary Pizana, Nottingham’s mentor program coordinator and CIS Project Manager, of Harlan’s passing.

The weave of this story continued this fall when Pizana recognized Terrell during a visit to HEB. He told her he wanted to become a mentor in SBISD again. She advised him to complete the required steps to register as a volunteer/mentor and attend a new mentor training.

Coincidentally (or perhaps not!), the coordinator of mentoring in SBISD, Pat Waldrop, also encountered Terrell at HEB when he helped her load a donation of water and snacks into her car for a recent parent engagement event. She encouraged him to follow through with becoming a mentor.

“He was so helpful and we had a great conversation,” said Waldrop. “It was a bright spot in the day for sure. He is such a nice young man.” They recently met up again when Terrell attended a New Mentor Training session at the SBISD Administration Building.

At the training Terrell was informed that Pizana at Nottingham intended to rematch him with his previous mentee, Daemone. “I am so glad to hear this,” said Terrell. “He’s a great kid!”

Now reunited as mentor and mentee, with a few years of personal and physical growth between them, Terrell and Daemone are happily getting to know each other again during weekly visits in the Nottingham library.

“We plan to focus part of our time together on improving his math skills,” said Terrell, who has realized helping and tutoring are his passion. “I am willing to help him and I have a lot of patience.”

“It is good to have a mentor,” said Daemone when asked what advice he would give to his younger brothers or other students considering the SpringBoard Mentor program. “You get to do fun things, play games and sometimes go outside together.”

Throughout these chapters of Daemone’s ‘career’ as a mentee, he has benefitted from the Collaborative Spirit of a web of caring adults, including Ward Harlan. Mr. Harlan was beloved and will be missed by so many in SBISD as the ripple effects of his service go on for years to come.

If you would like to start a heartwarming story with an SBISD student waiting for a mentor, please contact mentor@springbranchisd.com or 713-251-2468.