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Power of Mentoring
By Susan Bender Phelps, ACB, CL
I remember it as if it was yesterday: 1984 – Super Bowl Sunday – The Raiders
vs. the Redskins. But I was in Los Angeles for an all-day conference on
making communities work instead of attending the big game. The list of
speakers was impressive, yet I only remember two of them, a gang leader
and his mother.
“I deedn’t get eet fighting! I swear, eet was touch futbol!” His voice rang out
from the back of the auditorium and down the center aisle a bandana-ed
young man strutted to the stage - high above his head, he brandished his right arm in a cast.
He was a gang leader from East Oakland, his older brother had committed suicide in jail. his prospects
weren’t much better. He came to talk about being in the first 10-
day Breakthrough Course and Mentoring Program for at-risk youth.
“It was ten days of hell!” he told us. And yet, his life was
transformed. His story was impressive.
When his mother spoke, my life changed forever. “About two
months after my boys came home from the 10-day course,” she
told us, “my husband came home from work, sober. When I asked
him, mi querida, what’s going on? He told me, ‘If my sons can turn
their lives around, so can I.’ “
In that moment I knew I’d found a new direction for my life. If
effective mentoring could make a difference that profound, I was
all in. Within three years, friends and generous donors helped me
co-found the New Mexico Youth at Risk Foundation. For more than
15 years, I trained hundreds of adults to become mentors in our
program and similar programs throughout the country. I coached
the mentors, youth and often, parents. I facilitated the weekly
workshops for the youth and their mentors. We empowered
hundreds of mentoring partners as they worked together to create
futures filled with possibility and opportunity.
The success of our programs led businesses to invite me to assist them in making their existing
professional mentoring programs stronger. Other companies invited me to help them start youth
mentoring programs specifically for their employees in partnership with local high schools. Now I run my
own corporate training and speaking business focusing on mentorship, leadership and communication.
My first experience with Toastmasters was at the 2010 District 7 Leadership Conference where I gave a
keynote entitled “Getting to the Top Without a Ladder.” I talked about how you can use mentoring in
your career and in your Toastmasters club. That was also the day I met Phyllis Harmon, who is now our
District Governor. We became instant friends.
In the spring of 2011, she invited me to become a charter member of a new club that would be for
professional speakers. It was a collaborative effort of Toastmasters and National Speakers Association of
Oregon. I jumped at the opportunity. Business was still slow from the recession and one of my mentors
(Continued on page 31)
11
By Susan Bender Phelps, ACB, CL
I remember it as if it was yesterday: 1984 – Super Bowl Sunday – The Raiders
vs. the Redskins. But I was in Los Angeles for an all-day conference on
making communities work instead of attending the big game. The list of
speakers was impressive, yet I only remember two of them, a gang leader
and his mother.
“I deedn’t get eet fighting! I swear, eet was touch futbol!” His voice rang out
from the back of the auditorium and down the center aisle a bandana-ed
young man strutted to the stage - high above his head, he brandished his right arm in a cast.
He was a gang leader from East Oakland, his older brother had committed suicide in jail. his prospects
weren’t much better. He came to talk about being in the first 10-
day Breakthrough Course and Mentoring Program for at-risk youth.
“It was ten days of hell!” he told us. And yet, his life was
transformed. His story was impressive.
When his mother spoke, my life changed forever. “About two
months after my boys came home from the 10-day course,” she
told us, “my husband came home from work, sober. When I asked
him, mi querida, what’s going on? He told me, ‘If my sons can turn
their lives around, so can I.’ “
In that moment I knew I’d found a new direction for my life. If
effective mentoring could make a difference that profound, I was
all in. Within three years, friends and generous donors helped me
co-found the New Mexico Youth at Risk Foundation. For more than
15 years, I trained hundreds of adults to become mentors in our
program and similar programs throughout the country. I coached
the mentors, youth and often, parents. I facilitated the weekly
workshops for the youth and their mentors. We empowered
hundreds of mentoring partners as they worked together to create
futures filled with possibility and opportunity.
The success of our programs led businesses to invite me to assist them in making their existing
professional mentoring programs stronger. Other companies invited me to help them start youth
mentoring programs specifically for their employees in partnership with local high schools. Now I run my
own corporate training and speaking business focusing on mentorship, leadership and communication.
My first experience with Toastmasters was at the 2010 District 7 Leadership Conference where I gave a
keynote entitled “Getting to the Top Without a Ladder.” I talked about how you can use mentoring in
your career and in your Toastmasters club. That was also the day I met Phyllis Harmon, who is now our
District Governor. We became instant friends.
In the spring of 2011, she invited me to become a charter member of a new club that would be for
professional speakers. It was a collaborative effort of Toastmasters and National Speakers Association of
Oregon. I jumped at the opportunity. Business was still slow from the recession and one of my mentors
(Continued on page 31)
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