Mentoring for Troubled Kids

by Dawn McMullen

Dallas Elevators Powered by Coca-Cola Partnering with the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Dallas, Dallas Elevators Powered by Coca-Cola rolled out in September, connecting 200 local juniors and seniors with mentors like Mike Modano of the Dallas Stars and local artist and designer Brad Oldham.

“I started looking around at some statistics here over the past year that are pretty scary,” says Ben Lawson, director of bottler sales and marketing for Coca-Cola North America. “One of every five residents of Dallas
age 25 or over hasn’t completed high school. Less than 50 percent of DISD seniors took a college entrance exam.”

To help combat this, Coca-Cola initiated a three-year commitment to fund Dallas Elevators, which finds mentors for kids in six industries: local government, sports, the arts, health, education, and business.

“Oftentimes, our kids won’t have a very broad level of exposure … in these things,” says Charles English, president of the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Dallas. “If you’re interested in the world of banking and finance, we can connect you with an executive at JP Morgan Chase.”

Tesilum Akinpelu, a junior at Townview Center’s School of Government and Law, has been with the BGC since he was 6. His mentor helped him look up the exact SAT scores he’ll need to get into Duke University or the University of Southern California, where he plans to study criminal law on his way to being a judge.

“It’s got me thinking about what I’m going to start doing,” Akinpelu says, “where I’m going.”