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During his monthly visit with students at Burney-Harris-Lyons Middle School, Dexter Fisher talks with sixth-graders about the importance of education in preparing themselves for the future. (Photo by Paul Efland)
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‘Surrounded
by good people’
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Physical Plant joins new community mentoring program at local school
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By Mary Jessica Hammes
mhammes@uga.edu
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Dexter Fisher remembers his childhood mentors.
As a middle school student in Greenwood, S.C., “I played sports,” says Fisher, director of services for the university’s Physical Plant. “I was surrounded by a lot of good people, mostly my coaches, who kept me grounded. I knew then that to go to college, I needed good grades to get a scholarship.”
His parents, football coaches and his science teacher, one Mrs. Davison who also lived in his neighborhood—“She made sure I took care of business,” Fisher says—are still fresh in his mind as the people who made a difference in his childhood. Today, as part of a community project in which UGA is participating, Fisher has the chance to play that same role in another young person’s life.
The Athens Area Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring a new mentoring program in which local businesses provide a mentor to visit a classroom of sixth-grade students at Burney-Harris-Lyons Middle School. The mentors come once a month, giving presentations on their jobs and the necessary skills to succeed in that field. Each company has made the commitment to continue visiting this particular group of students for the next three years, so that they move with them to the eighth grade. When this group graduates, the mentors will begin anew with a fresh batch of sixth graders.
UGA’s Physical Plant is, so far, the only university presence in the program. When Fisher visits, he says, first he enjoys a breakfast with other mentors, prepared by the students themselves. Once in the classroom, Fisher encourages the students to ponder their future careers. He shows them a short video about UGA. He discusses the various career opportunities at the university, including the Physical Plant. And then he answers the students’ questions, most of which are career-oriented, though “of course they always ask about the football team,” he says, laughing.
They’ve also asked him about his own job, and how he began his own career. Fisher says he is always careful to emphasize that education doesn’t stop after school.
“I tell them that one of my goals is to learn Spanish,” he says. “I keep learning, keep training.
“It’s critical they understand how important education is,” he also says. “The main thing is to get them really thinking about what they want to do. In six years, they’ll be graduating (from high school).”
In May, Fisher plans to take the students on a field trip of the Physical Plant, where they will witness the daily activities of some of the 800 employees there. Next year, he hopes to bring some of his workers to the classroom to demonstrate their skills, such as a cabinet maker building something in front of the students. In the future, Fisher says that he plans to bring other departments on campus to the mentoring program.
“We want to be a partner with our community, and what goes on with the young people,” he says. |
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