Governor Kim Reynolds has declared January as National Mentoring Month in Iowa.

The proclamation recognizes every day quality mentoring programs in Iowa which connect mentors with young people to help youth grow and develop into our next generation of leaders.

Lone Tree Business and Technology teacher Jessica Howard is one of about only three dozen teachers nationwide and the only one in Iowa to be named an Inclusion, Access, Equity and Diversity (IAED) Mentor. She says the program promotes principles vital to mentoring students from different backgrounds. Howard says she’s proud to represent her district in the program, “I was so lucky to be picked to work in Lone Tree where I have this unique voice and show people around the country how amazing things are we can do in Lone Tree because the kind of school and community we are in. It’s really eye-opening to me to see how people are interested in what happens in a school with less than 500 people in it.”

Howard says it’s humbling to see the positive results of mentoring students. Research from the Iowa Mentoring Partnership shows a young person who has a mentor is 55% more likely to be enrolled in college than those without a mentor, and 78% of mentored youth are more likely to volunteer regularly in their communities, which makes them more than twice as likely to hold a leadership position.