NEW YORK—Ellen Silber, Ph.D., professor of French and director of the Marymount Institute for the Education of Women and Girls, has been awarded more than $90,000 in grants to expand the Latinas Mentoring Project.
Last year, nearly 50 Hispanic girls from Sleepy Hollow Middle School in West Chester County received support and guidance from young, successful Hispanic women through the Marymount project. Each of the 14 Marymount mentors met weekly with three or four Sleepy Hollow girls at their school for tutoring and to provide the girls with an opportunity to talk about school and social issues that they may not be comfortable discussing at home.
“Both students and mentors spoke enthusiastically about their participation,” said Silber, who added that the middle school students said they’d learned about health issues, social skills and personal responsibility. “These results have inspired us to take the project to a second school.”
This year, more than 20 Marymount students will serve as personal mentors to young girls from Eastview Middle School in White Plains, N.Y., and from Sleepy Hollow Middle School.
“[The Marymount mentors] will once again get a chance to have an impact on the lives of young girls who are in many ways like themselves,” said Silber.
Silber received grants of $25,000 from the J.P. Morgan Chase Foundation, $10,000 from both the Union Free School District of Sleepy Hollow and the RHSM Center/United Way, and $50,000 from an anonymous donor to support the project.
