Mentors help empower young women with leadership skills

By VIKKI BLAND

When 16-year-old Azarnia Smith walks through the gates of Auckland's Tamaki College each morning, she carries more than her lunch with her.

For the past 18 months Smith has been part of a fledgling programme designed to empower young women with leadership and life management skills.

The Future Leaders programme, launched by the YWCA in August 2002, works by matching promising students of limited financial means to successful female business mentors. The mentors are available for a minimum of four years.

For Smith, the benefits of having a personal mentor have been far-reaching.

"When I started secondary school I was really lazy. I knew about the idea of goal setting and studying, but I couldn't be bothered to actually do it."

Now she says she's confident, feels good about her career prospects and has even developed a vision for herself.

"I really want to better myself; I feel driven but not in a pressured way. Eventually I'd like to be a role model for other young Maori women."

Smith's father Tony says while his daughter, the eldest of four, was "good" before embarking on the programme, there were problems.

"Before, if we tried to tell Azarnia some things that she needed to know, or shouldn't be doing, she'd just ignore us. Now if we tell her something and [her mentor] Annamarie says we're right, Azarnia just accepts it."

Smith is the kind of father who would prefer he was listened to in the first place, but while he makes it clear he doesn't agree with everything his daughter and her mentor decide, he's happy overall.

"[Azarnia] has definitely changed for the better, and I'd be very happy for my other daughters to be on this programme."

Adele Lendich, YWCA co-ordinator for the Future Leaders programme, says parents are understandably anxious about allowing a stranger to influence their daughter's life for four years or more.

"I remember going to one school and looking out at the parent audience and there was just this huge wall of mistrust. Afterwards, a Tongan woman admitted her first thought had been, 'Who do these people think they are?' But then she decided she was really excited for her daughter.

"That's what parents must know; the mentor role is clearly defined and in no way will this programme seek to take the place of or undermine the authority of parents."

So how does the selection process work?

Lendich says the YWCA networks with principals and approaches a school for permission to present the programme. It is introduced to third-form girls who are invited to apply.

The applications received (and there are typically many) are assessed by the school on the basis of the financial status, ability and potential of each student. The school then nominates students according to the number of mentors Lendich has available.

Finally, the programme is presented to parents and caregivers, and a final check done on the personal and time commitments of each applicant to ensure the programme will not apply unhelpful pressure.

Many students are willing to take that risk. When Lendich presented the Future Leaders programme to Carmel College on Auckland's North Shore, of 120 third-form girls 80 took application forms and 30 returned them. Ultimately, 12 students were selected. The other 18 missed out - primarily, says Lendich, through a lack of available mentors.

She says the programme accepts only mentors who are successful business women with suitable backgrounds; unfortunately such women are typically very busy.

"I think we're doing well in that the 40 mentors we have are of an ethnic mix. We've got Pacific Island and Maori, European Kiwis, English, Canadians, Chinese and South Africans. While mentors don't exactly come rolling in the door, the ones that do come forward are very enthusiastic."

It's pretty impressive Lendich manages to attract any mentors at all. For providing four years of love, guidance and time, Future Leaders mentors don't get paid a cent; nor do they get out-of-pocket expenses reimbursed.

"It's awful, but if we take the students to a great conference with inspirational women speakers, we pay for the students but the mentors have to pay for themselves," says Lendich.

The problem is, of course, funding. The YWCA receives no government assistance and relies solely on internally generated income, donations and fundraising efforts.

For the financial year ended June 30, 2003, this amounted to $1,250,780; the Future Leaders programme got to share $183,045 with other community programmes while fundraising, administration and YWCA hostel costs scored the rest.

Unsurprisingly then, only very altruistic women become YWCA Future Leaders mentors. Smith's mentor, Annamarie Jamieson, 36, is one such woman.

Jamieson is business manager for the National Advertising Bureau, and at first glance seems an unlikely match for the articulate but shy Smith.

Business savvy and a little edgy, Jamieson is nobody's fool. However, in the company of Smith, Jamieson visibly relaxes and Smith simply comes alive.

Jamieson says being a mentor has surpassed all her expectations and also taught her things about her own career.

"I don't think four years is long at all. Being with Azarnia has been great and I'm looking forward to the next few years."

Jamieson not only shares Smith's birthday, but grew up on the same street in Tokoroa as Smith's father.

"So for me there's a feeling that this was meant to be. [Beyond that] I think it is important to put something back into the community."

She admits to being concerned that Azarnia has a good future and feels emotionally involved in her life.

"How many of us ever knew what we wanted to be by the age of 21? When Azarnia leaves school, I think our friendship and relationship will continue."

Lendich says almost everyone outside the programme wishes they'd had a similar opportunity in their teens.

"This programme is unique to New Zealand and is all about empowering young women by [teaching them] leadership skills for their future lives and careers; the young women who take part in this programme are more likely to be able to rely on their own resources in the future."

However, Lendich says the best mentor in the world can't help a student without the desire to succeed.

"We invite students to apply for themselves because that immediately shows us who is motivated.

"And the kids we take on are all 'good' kids; this is not a [rehabilitative] programme."

Smith's father concurs. "In the end, it's only Azarnia that can make this work."

Smith says despite winning a scholarship at intermediate level which meant she got a computer and started Tamaki College in an extension class, it wasn't until she "got Annamarie" that she really started to shine.

"I hope it sounds right to say, but having someone extra on your back is a good thing. A lot of Maori and Polynesian kids make excuses about why they haven't done better.

"They get affected by peer pressure and the boyfriend/girlfriend thing and then they say they haven't done better because they're not rich enough. I want to prove to them the support is there from the family and school if you want it."

Smith is presently in the Army cadets and plays netball for the Counties Manukau under-17 team.

She is proud of the fact she has passed NCEA level 1 a year earlier than many of her peers, and she is considering a future career in the police or armed forces.

"I'm better at studying, planning and goal setting than I was. At school I can talk to my teachers.

"But a mentor knows who you really are and what your family is like. Being with another adult so much has also helped me understand that adults have problems too."

That last admission may be all the incentive parents across New Zealand need to support the Future Leaders programme and its mission.

Future Leaders