TeamMates Kickoff Event

On August 5th, 140 TeamMates mentors braved 100-degree heat to celebrate the start of the new school year. Along with TeamMates staff, mentor and co-founder Tom Osborne was on hand to welcome mentors and students, as was Superintendent, Dr. Paul Gausman, who became a TeamMate himself last year. 

While mentors munched on Freddy’s steakburgers, they played board games distributed throughout the East High cafeteria.

“We wanted to remind our mentors that having fun and being playful is one of the best ways to build a bond with their mentee,” said long-time TeamMates Match Support Specialist Audrey Watson. “Finding your inner kid is a great way to connect.”

Game-playing as a get-to-know-you strategy was the common thread for the panel of three 2024 LPS graduates who shared their 8-9 year experiences in TeamMates with the crowd. 

The panelists included Aaliyah Barnes, a graduate of Lincoln High and KB Esau and Brianna Mowry, both graduates of East High. Each talked about unique challenges they faced growing up, including death of a loved one, navigating adversity, and needing a reason to go to school. 

Barnes made the courageous choice to accept a new mentor when her mentor of seven years was unable to continue for health reasons. 

“I really wasn’t sure I could trust someone new,” she said. “Then, Stacey showed up and she was so easy to get to know.”

Esau navigated some “very rough patches” in middle school with his mentor, who phoned to wish him good luck on the panel because he was stuck in Omaha. They plan to have lunch.

Mowry beamed at her TeamMate, now friend, seated nearby, “You helped me come out of my shell and gain confidence I didn’t think I had.” 

All attendees took time to reflect on their aspirations for the year responding to the question: What do you want to be true for you as a mentor in a month, six months, a year? 

They shared these hopes with their tablemates. One wanted to ask their mentee whether they’d like to read a book together and talk about it. Another hoped to better develop their two-way communication skills. A third wants to revisit questions they answered with their TeamMate years ago to see what has changed.

Some mentors attending were among the nearly 100 new mentors trained this summer. 

“We’re on track for training 350 new mentors this school year,” said coordinator Jim Bennett.