MENTOR LEARNS AS MUCH AS SHE TAUGHT.Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
``I knew as long as I had a chair in my office, someone could sit there and learn something.'' - Vanessa Morrison senior vice president of production at 20th Century Fox Jose Villalpando, then 17, sat in that chair four years ago and yawned. You couldn't blame the kid for being tired. He was getting up at 5 a.m. each weekday so he could take a two-hour bus ride from his parents' apartment in South Los Angeles South Los Angeles is the official name for a large geographic and cultural area lying to the southwest and southeast of downtown Los Angeles, California. The area was formerly called South Central Los Angeles, and is still sometimes called South Central. to school at Dorsey High. After school, he spent another hour on the bus, riding to the 20th Century Fox lot in Century City. There, he sat in the chair for a couple hours and watched his mentor work before he had to get back on the bus for the ride home. So you couldn't blame the kid for being a little tired sitting in that chair - if that was the reason he was yawning yawning a deep, involuntary inspiration with the mouth open, often accompanied by the act of stretching. Repeated yawning in the presence of other signs, may accompany signs of chronic abdominal pain or hepatic disease. . It wasn't. ``I heard him finally say to my assistant, 'Man, this is really boring,''' Vanessa Morrison said, laughing. ``It was kind of embarrassing. People were usually pretty excited to be sitting in that chair, but this kid was bored. ``That day was the turning point for us,'' said the senior vice president of production at Fox, who was a junior executive four years ago when she became Jose's mentor. ``He was challenging me to really get involved in his life and the things that interested him, not just sit in my office listening to the phone ring.'' That's when Vanessa learned something that hundreds of other professionals who volunteer for the MENTOR/Los Angeles Mentoring Partnership have learned. The job is a two-way street. More likely than not, the mentor is going to learn a little something about life from that kid they're trying to give a leg up to. ``It was definitely different than I expected,'' she said. ``You underestimate the impact you're going to have on their life, and the impact they're going to have on yours. ``I've earned a tremendous amount of respect for what kids go through today, and the pressures on their daily lives. If you can help a motivated kid like Jose, why wouldn't you?'' Exactly, says Megan Chernin, a member of the board of directors of MENTOR/LAMP. ``We want to reach the vast number of kids in the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. area whose lives may be changed by exposure to new ideas "New Ideas" is the debut single by Scottish New Wave/Indie Rock act The Dykeenies. It was first released as a Double A-side with "Will It Happen Tonight?" on July 17, 2006. The band also recorded a video for the track. and models,'' she said. Kids such as Jose Villalpando. He had something important to talk about, Jose said as he sat in Vanessa's office a year into their mentoring partnership. His initial fears that it was going to be harder opening up to a woman, instead of a man, were long gone. He wasn't yawning anymore. ``By then, she had gone out of her way so many times to help me,'' Jose said this week. ``I knew I could tell her anything, and she would stand by me.'' He was enjoying their time together, and his part-time internship internship /in·tern·ship/ (in´tern-ship) the position or term of service of an intern in a hospital. internship, n the course work or practicum conducted in a professional dental clinic. at Fox, Jose told her. Soon, he would be graduating with honors from Dorsey High and would be starting at UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX . The future was looking bright. It was in the present that he could use some mentoring. ``My parents wanted to return to Mexico, and I didn't want to go with them,'' Jose said. ``I loved them, they knew that, but I just couldn't go. ``It hurt when I told them, but they understood. They only wanted the best for me, and it was to stay here.'' The two different worlds Jose was living in finally met at his high school graduation Graduation is the action of receiving or conferring an academic degree or the associated ceremony. The date of event is often called degree day. The event itself is also called commencement, convocation or invocation. . Sitting in the audience together, cheering for him as he received his diploma, were his immigrant parents from Mexico and his mentor and friends from Fox. ``The two biggest parts of my life had finally come together,'' Jose said. ``I was so proud of my parents. They thanked Vanessa for everything she was doing for me. I'll never forget that night.'' Jose's parents returned from Mexico last year. He's a senior at UCLA now, with dreams of becoming a writer someday some·day adv. At an indefinite time in the future. Usage Note: The adverbs someday and sometime express future time indefinitely: We'll succeed someday. Come sometime. - and a mentor. ``I going to do the same thing for some kid out there that Vanessa did for me,'' he said. Here's the thing, Vanessa says. In L.A. - maybe more than anywhere else in the country - people get caught up in their lives and their time commitments. ``They don't think they can make the time for mentoring, but they're wrong. You can always make the time. You just have to realize you're going to be getting back so much more than you're ever going to give.'' Dennis McCarthy, (818) 713-3749 dennis.mccarthy(at)dailynews.com MORE INFORMATION --For more information on the MENTOR/Los Angeles Mentoring Partnership, call (213) 630-2141 or see www.lamentoring.org. A benefit for the organization - starring comedians A comedian is one who entertains through comedy, such as jokes and other forms of humour. Comedians (English language) A
DeGeneres has hosted both the Academy Awards and the Primetime Emmys. and Ray Romano Raymond Romano (born December 21, 1957 in Queens, New York) is an Emmy Award-winning and Golden Globe-nominated, American actor and comedian best known for his starring role on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. - will be held April 27 at the Kodak Theatre The Kodak Theatre is a live theatre in the Hollywood and Highland retail, dining, and entertainment complex on Hollywood Boulevard and North Highland Avenue in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. . For tickets and information, call (310) 201-5033. CAPTION(S): photo, box Photo: Vanessa Morrison of 20th Century Fox and student Jose Villalpando bonded through the Los Angeles MENTOR program. Box: MORE INFORMATION (see text) |
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