Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV

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October 26, 2009

Guiding youth: Judge encourages school children’s success

By GREG JORDAN

MONTCALM — Judges, lawyers, business people and other professionals often have busy schedules, but one circuit court judge is asking them to add a new item to that list of things to do–visit a local school and mentor to children.

Mercer County Circuit Court Judge Omar Aboulhosn is scheduled to ask the Mercer County Board of Education to endorse a plan to expand a mentoring program that links schools and their classes to local professionals.

For more than 10 years, Aboulhosn has been working with sixth grade classes at Montcalm Elementary School. He reads to students once a week and helps arrange field trips, including a tour of the Southern Regional Jail near Beckley each spring.

“It started out when I was a private lawyer,” Aboulhosn recalled. “My former law firm was a Partner in Education with them. I started going to the school to be a Read Aloud volunteer, and instead of me going once every three or four months, I started going every week, and it just developed into a mentoring thing. I’ve been doing that for 12 years.”

One goal is to instill the idea that education is valuable.

“I tell them that the overwhelming majority of the men and women in our regional jails never received a high school diploma or a GED,” Aboulhosn said. “I also show them that the average income increases as education increases.”

“I try to encourage them to stay in school, and it works,” he said. “These kids, they enjoy me being there with them, and I think they need to see that you can be a successful professional in Mercer County. You have to work hard, stay in school and go to college. It’s been a good program at Montcalm that I want to see expand to other schools in Mercer County.”

Aboulhosn said he recently began working with Generation GAP (Gathering Area Professionals), a young professionals group for ages 21 to 45, and the Dropout Prevention Committee of the COFY (Creating Opportunities for Youth) Coalition to expand mentoring in Mercer County.

“Generation GAP members will be going into the other schools. Our goal is to replicate and expand what I do at Montcalm to other schools using other young professionals. We will assist in training the other professionals,” he said.

Aboulhosn hopes to match professionals with fifth and sixth grade classes at up to six other schools. The adults would agree to visit classes once a week to talk about the importance of staying in school, the benefits of going to college, and the importance of avoiding drugs and alcohol.

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