Recently I wrote about how important it is that counselors are curious and interested in a third culture kid's story. The great thing about blogging is that I get to meet new people online. I appreciate every comment that is left on my blog. Thank you so much. So that's how I met Ellen. She left a comment on the post I just mentioned. She wrote about a new online mentoring program for expat teens, called Sea Change Mentoring. As curious as I am, I had to know more about this. I am glad Ellen agreed to answer my questions. If you have more questions you can add them in the comments and hopefully Ellen can answer those too. Ellen grew up abroad too, just like I did!
1.
Can you tell us about Sea Change, your online mentoring program for expat
teens?
Sea Change
Mentoring helps expat youth prepare for going back to their home countries,
minimize reverse culture shock and maximize the benefits of having lived
abroad. We do this by connecting high school students with mentors who grew up
as expats and who went through this re-entry process successfully. With the
help of our tailored curriculum, and by connecting online on a weekly basis,
mentors ensure their proteges persist in college and lead healthy, independent
lives.
2. What made you realize that there is a need for online mentoring?
 |
| I'm being heard! |
My
work at iMentor allowed me to observe firsthand how online mentoring changed
the lives of thousands of young people in New York City. iMentor is one of the
leading e-mentoring programs in the US. I worked for them for 5 years
developing their volunteer management program, trainings thousands of mentors
and ensuring the organization used the evidence and best practices in the
field.
After
the 2011 earthquake in Japan, I realized that it was time for me to give back
to my own community, the TCK community, by bringing mentoring to the lives of
young people living abroad. I grew up as a TCK in Japan and Singapore and know
firsthand what the benefits are of living abroad and what the risks can be of
going “home.” According to the research that’s out there and our own survey
results, the majority of TCK’s want (or wished they had) someone from the expat
community to guide them through the process of adjusting to their home country.
Mentoring is focused on letting the power of a structured relationship with a
caring and safe adult be a guiding force in helping a young person live a well
adjusted life. In my opinion, mentoring is perfectly suited to help young
people living abroad.
3. How do you mentor the expat teens? Our mentors work with expat teens while
they still live abroad. They are matched through the teen’s first year in their
home country. Mentors and these proteges meet weekly via videochat technology.
Together they create goals that they would like to achieve together within the
structure of our curriculum. Mentors use the curriculum to guide teens through
processing their expat experiences, managing their expectations of what coming
home means and building coping skills that will help them minimize reverse
culture shock. We cover topics like relationship building, pop culture and life
skills (like getting a driver’s license and understanding how to use their
country’s banking system).
4.
Can you tell us something about your mentors? In what countries do they live?
How many do you have? This organization is in its start-up phase and will
launch our first program year in January, 2013.
We expect to work with over 50 mentors during this pilot year. The
majority of the mentors will have US passports, necessary for screening
purposes, but they may live anywhere in the world. All of our mentors are Adult
Third Culture Kids and are carefully screened and trained. We pay them an
hourly wage as a way to thank them for giving back to the community. So far the
mentors we have recruited have lived in various countries in Asia, Africa,
Latin America and the Middle East.
5.
You have started mentoring recently, how many expat teens have you mentored so
far? Again, this organization is in its start-up phase and will launch our
first program year in January, 2013. We
expect to work with between 50 and 100 teens during our pilot year. So far, the
response from families and schools across the globe reaffirms the need for this
type of service.
6.
What kind of problems do the teens experience when returning to their
"home" country? As some of the research suggests and as our recent
survey of over 200 Adult TCKs exposed, many kids experience depression, anxiety,
feelings of restlessness and difficulty relating to peers. A lot of this has to with unresolved grief.
Ruth Van Reken goes into this in detail in her book Third Culture Kids.
7.
What advice do you have for parents when they prepare their kids for re-entry
into their passport country? In our recent survey we completed of over 200
Adult TCKs, parents came up a lot. The good news is that TCK’s that had an
easier time adjusting to their home country had supportive parents that were
present and educated about reverse culture shock. It helps when parents “go
home” at the same time as the child, if they return to an area that the child
is familiar with and if they attend the same university as their siblings. For
Adult TCK’s that had a difficult time, many of them reported that they had
wished their parents had been more empathetic. Also, many Adult TCK’s spoke
about needing more help from parents on particular “life skills,” such as
learning how to drive or how to use their home country’s banking system.
8.
What advice would you give teens returning to their "home" country?
Dr. Nan Sussman has done some great research on this topic and a lot of our
curriculum reflects her suggestions. In her article, “Sojourners to AnotherCountry: the Psychological Roller-Coaster of Cultural Transitions,” she
stresses the importance of psychologically preparing for their return home,
understanding that feeling distressed once they have moved back home is normal
and to find like-minded individuals to help ease the transition. In fact, we
have found that teens that join international clubs or communities or that move
to urban centers with diverse populations fare better. Many teens do well if
they get involved or stay involved in sports once they return to their home
country. Finally, just keeping a positive attitude about the transition can
make a huge difference. As one
respondent from our survey said “While I was nervous and scared it was also
this great new adventure where I was all on my own and I could either make the
most of it or hit rock bottom.”
10. Is there anything else that you could like to share with the readers? I
want to stress that are so many positive things that we can get out of being
TCKs. Dr. Sussman reports that living abroad can increase our cultural
sensitivity, Ruth E. Van Reken talks about how TCK’s have an expanded
worldview. Our survey brought up some really interesting benefits of being
TCKs. The one I think is most interesting, that a number of ATCKs wrote about,
was the increased ability to think and express oneself creatively. With all the
body language deciphering, interpreting and listening we have to do as TCKs,
this makes a lot sense to me. As someone that has been involved with hiring college
graduates for years, I often look for these qualities in potential employees.
So I want to acknowledge both the difficulty and the privileges and life
lessons we experience as TCKs.
If
your readers are interested in becoming mentors, signing up a teenager for the
program or becoming a corporate partner they can contact me at Ellen@seachangementoring.com or
visit our website.
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Do you have suggestions for the mentoring program? Would you have liked to have a mentor on returning to your passport country? I would have!
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Image thanks to Mary R.Vogt at Morgue File
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