A Mentor Match Made in Heaven

By Rebecca Chamberlin

On December 4th, 2017, I successfully matched my first mentor pair in EMBARC’s Des Moines mentoring program. The program matches mentors with a refugee or immigrant client to help them work towards their personal and professional goals. The mentee, named Nu, is a one of
EMBARC’s parent-navigators and applied to our mentoring program because she wanted help
improving her English. Her mentor, Virginia, has had experience teaching English Language Learners classes abroad and teaches ELL classes at a church in Des Moines. The two have been
meeting almost every week since December 4 th , 2017. So far, they have logged over ten hours
together and Virginia says that both Nu’s English and confidence have greatly improved. “I love
Nu’s attitude every time we work together. She patient, positive, but also honest”, says
Virginia.