This unique mentorship program helps students with learning differences realize 'their brains are beautiful'

One in 5 kids within the United States has a learning incapacity. At the time, Flink did not realize he was amongst them, and his struggles left him feeling alone and remoted.It was in a hallway the place Flink met his first mentor, the varsity's janitor. "He got to know me, and eventually we started playing chess," Flink mentioned. "There was nothing that said he had to take an interest in my life, and he did anyhow. And that saved me."At 11, Flink was recognized with ADHD and dyslexia. With the help of his mother and father and the best college, Flink graduated highschool and went to Brown University. When he acquired to school, he discovered a group of students who additionally had learning differences. Together with 5 of them, Flink began a mentoring program for close by elementary college students who had a learning incapacity. They known as the program Eye to Eye."It was lightning in a bottle," Flink mentioned of the program's early days. "All of a sudden, all this stuff that we thought was really taboo and doesn't sound good -- we discovered they were just words. Under all of that was potential.""Middle school is actually the predictor of success," Flink mentioned. "It's where kids have the maturity to say, 'Hey, this is how my brain works. And I can ask for that thing.'"

Eye to Eye's curriculum makes use of artwork as a self-expression instrument. Every exercise within the 18-week program facilities on a particular social-emotional learning goal. Each lesson builds on the earlier, shifting students from self-doubt to empowerment."It's incredible to see a classroom of our mentors and mentees," Flink mentioned. "They can be open and be themselves and that stigma is gone." The group is in 150 faculties nationwide and has greater than 1,350 mentees impacting center college kids every week. Eighty % of Eye to Eye students graduate from school -- a formidable price contemplating kids with learning disabilities are thrice more more likely to drop out of highschool. "It's just crazy to me when we think about groups of students who are likely to fail, we don't look at the thing that they're showing up to do, which is learn," Flink mentioned. "This group has the highest dropout rate in our country. We can solve for that."While Flink enjoys listening to concerning the educational success Eye to Eye brings to kids, there's one thing more he finds gratifying. "When I hear that because they were in Eye to Eye, they now understand somebody else's experience better who's different than them -- this is what we need in America," Flink mentioned. "We have to love each other across our difference."CNN's Meghan Dunn spoke with Flink about his work. Below is an edited model of their dialog.CNN: How has the pandemic affected your work? David Flink: When Covid first hit and abruptly we despatched children residence, my largest worry was that the youngsters who realized in a different way had been going to be the primary to endure as a result of they had been already those who had been struggling at school. So, we took our corps of mentors and we began deploying them nearly. It's taking the identical secret sauce that was in particular person and offering it in a digital format.CNN: What's particular concerning the relationship between mentor and mentee? Flink: Every mentor and mentee relationship, after all, has its personal unique DNA. But the factor that I preserve seeing that's comparable is, primary, there's this speedy sense of belief. They're totally different ages and totally different life experiences, and so why would they get alongside so effectively? But there's this speedy sense of belief and understanding that is simply magical.The second factor was a shock for me. The students come to fulfill in a group -- the mentees are assembly with their mentors and subsequent to them there's one other mentee assembly with their mentor. And so, whereas they is probably not working straight collectively, they are working collectively in the identical room. So simply trying round, they really feel this sense of sameness and of empowerment.CNN: What is your hope for the youngsters you are serving to? Flink: My hope for the youngsters in Eye to Eye at the moment is the very same hope I had 21 years in the past once I first stepped right into a classroom to mentor. I would like them to know that their brains are stunning. I would like them to know that they will obtain something. I would like them to go away feeling like they know tips on how to ask for what they want. And that they will do it. And that is what we give them.