“My mentor helps me do the stuff I want to do!”

The Shadow Project aims to put the right tools into the hands of students, so they can feel empowered and excited to learn. Sometimes, the most effective tool is an encouraging mentor.

This past fall, a mentor for The Shadow Project’s Reading Mentors program noticed a student who seemed particularly enthusiastic and engaged with the program: Dalilah. Dalilah is a fourth grader at Meadows Elementary. When The Shadow Project recently met with her, she was eager to share some things about herself. She wanted us to know: she’s great at math, she loves her mom and riding her bike, and Wednesday is her favorite day of the week because: “on Wednesdays I get to come and have fun with my mentor!”

While Dalilah enjoys being at school and learning new things, she hasn’t always felt that way. In an interview with her she shared, “When I first got here, I didn’t like it.” But Dalilah is not someone to easily give up. As she worked hard and learned new things she began to really enjoy school, even when it felt hard. 

In Fall 2024, Dalilah joined our Reading Mentors program and was paired up with a mentor, Mike. Her and Mike met one-on-one every Wednesday to work on reading goals. During these sessions, her mentor showed Dalilah how to access and use Learning Ally, a digital audio-visual library with over 8,000 titles. Dalilah quickly found she enjoyed using Learning Ally and with her mentor’s encouragement, she began setting and achieving reading goal after goal!

Dalilah started her Reading Mentors journey with picture books and enjoyed reading them with her mentor and also in between sessions. Her mentor recognized her enthusiasm and the speed at which she was reading the books, so he began suggesting chapter books that were higher reading levels. Dalilah then began reading more complex chapter books that were beyond her grade level, like the middle grade book Wild Robot. As of mid February, she’s read a total of 2 hours and 20 minutes and 176 pages on Learning Ally! 

Dalilah’s mentor noticed that she came to each session feeling excited and confident, and he started to see that confidence show in other parts of her school day that she had previously mentioned were challenging. For example, her mentor recalled a time Dalilah had shared with him that she was having a hard time on a writing assignment in her class, and that she had expressed that she found writing challenging in past meetings too. The two talked about it and he gave her some encouragement and reminded her about all the tough reading goals she had accomplished in their time together. She left the session feeling positive and self assured! Mike continued, “A couple weeks later she proudly pointed out her writing sample that had been posted in the hallway and even read it aloud to me. I feel like that confidence and perseverance that Reading Mentors has been helping her develop is spilling over into other school subjects, and is a perfect example of how the mentoring relationship does so much to support kids.”

Dalilah herself shared how she feels becoming a more frequent reader has helped her feel more confident in other subjects, saying, “When I read, it helps me. It helps me with how to write stuff. It helps me make my brain bigger.” She also feels her mentor has been a big part of this growth, adding, “My mentor helps me learn about reading, and he helps me do the stuff I want to do and love to do!”

Like many students, Dalilah is bursting with enthusiasm and a drive to learn. And while sometimes school can feel challenging and frustrating, with the right support from accessibility tools like Learning Ally, and with an encouraging mentor like Mike, Dalilah’s confidence and ability can continue to soar!

To learn more about The Shadow Project’s school based programs check out our Programs page.