U.S. Rep. Susan Davis (D-San Diego) supporting a congressional resolution that declared this National Mentoring Month, told her colleagues in the House on Tuesday, Feb. 8, that as the former director of the Aaron Price Fellows Program in San Diego, "it is one of my great pleasures now as a Member of Congress to welcome this group of students here every year as they encounter our national issues."

She said that of the various students who participated in the program taking them on visits to arms of the local, state and national governments, one whom she never will forget is Arzo Mansury, an "Afghan-American girl who, after graduation from UCSD, chose to work settling refugees from her birth country. She was really uniquely prepared to wrk with the Afghanistan embassy in the post-war reconstruction of her country.

"I have spoken to her on many occasions, and she believes that there is no way she could have done this without the kind of preparation, without the kind of mentoring that she received in this program."

Davis took the occasion to salute two other mentoring programs:

" A delegation from the San Diego YMCA's Youth and Family Services Program came to my office today, and they described their program called Y Friends. It is a mentoring program for children whose parents are in prison, children who are seven to eight times more likely to be incarcerated themselves. One young woman who has been through the Y's Transitional Living Skills Program is now a resident in Turning Point. This is a housing and counseling program for youth who have spent years in foster homes, but have passed the age of 18. Victoria, who had been in foster homes since she was 10, said, 'The key to a successful life for me is mentorship.' 

"Finally," Davis said, "I want to mention that I have been privileged to meet with military spouses who have formed a mentoring program for other spouses who are dealing with the now frequent and lengthy deployment of their loved ones, and that program is making a great deal of difference for them."      —Donald H. Harrison