Spotlight on Mentoring – October
Athletic director believes mentoring builds community
Matt Swift joins Cory, a fourth grade student at Southwest Elementary School, for lunch at least once a week.
Those who know him well aren’t surprised to hear Cory say he hates to read.
But the Southwest Elementary School fourth-grader knows that to be successful in the subject he’s most passionate about – math – he has to endure. Word problems won’t solve themselves.
“I know I have to do it,” Cory confided during a recent lunch hour with his mentor, Matt Swift.
“He’s really great at math,” said Swift, who works as the athletic program director for the City of Lexington Parks and Recreation Department. He was matched as a mentor to Cory through Communities In Schools of Lexington/Davidson County three years ago but the two had already become acquainted through youth athletics and through Swift’s wife, Kristina Swift, a former teacher of Cory’s.
“Being around so many kids with my job I saw … great kids with so much potential that just needed someone to guide them and help them,” Swift said. “Knowing there are so many kids in Lexington that have a chance to do anything they want but may not have the guidance or resources to reach their potential, I decided I wanted to help them achieve that success.”
With Cory, a lover of all things sports, Swift focuses on making the connection between academic success and success as an athlete.
“He’s helping me get where I need to go,” Cory said. The aspiring physical education teacher (if his career in the NFL doesn’t work out) knows that Swift expects the very best from him, or else he won’t be on the field with his fellow junior Yellow Jackets on game day. “He helps me behave.”
“His big thing is athletics but of course that’s all determined by academics. He needs to know he’s not automatically going to Carolina (to play football). There’s a lot more involved,” Swift said. “I’m just opening his eyes to the things he can do; the things that are out there that he has not had access to in the past.”
Together, Swift and Cory enjoy having lunch, attending sporting events, or just talking about school, life and goals for the future. “He seems happy when we discuss these things. I think it excites him to know the possibilities he has if he continues on the right path in life,” Swift said. “He has definitely improved his overall grades. (He still has) a ways to go in reading but we are getting there. He is much more confident in the classroom than (he was) previously.”
What drives Swift, he added, is the knowledge that the impact of his volunteer work goes far beyond what he is able to accomplish on an individual level with Cory.
“Being a mentor, whether through CIS or independently, is one of the most fulfilling things you can do. The feeling of seeing them improve all aspects of their life is unbelievable One of the things I find gratifying is thinking about the things that I could have done better as a student and making sure to steer (Cory) away from that. I just want him to be the good person I know he is and that I know he can be.
“Lexington is my home. So often you hear … people speaking of community, what can we do or how can we change this or that. Well, sometimes you have to get up off your rear end and contribute to making this a great community. I feel like by mentoring I’m being a small piece of that puzzle.”