Michelle Oakley- Mentor of the Year

Michelle has been a mentor just a little over a year. She has been a wonderful addition to our Generation One family! Michelle has been a faithful mentor to a teenage mentee. She does all the “normal” mentor stuff but is always doing extra. This includes helping her mentee get documentation, going to the eye doctor and getting glasses and more. Her mentee definitely knows that when she needs someone, she can count on Michelle, who has made a conscious effort to spend time with her mentee, while working full time at the hospital and being a full time wife. It’s also important to Michelle to show her mentee Jesus as much as she can. This past year the two of them attended several Beth Moore Bible Studies together. We are so thankful for the time that she invests in her mentee!

Nathanael Ince- Mentor of the Year

Nathanael has been a mentor with Generation One for a little over a year. He has a teenage mentee whom he has gotten to do a great deal of active things with. The two have spent some time with Nathanael’s family, throwing the football and eating dinner. Nathanael has taken his mentee to several Bible Studies, investing spiritually into his mentee. Through all of these extra activities, Nathanael has gained a lot of respect and trust from his mentee. When his mentee started going through hard times, Nathanael was the first person he called. Nathanael continues to support his mentee as both a friend and trustworthy adult. We are so thankful to have Nathanael serve with us, while his full time job requires him to travel a lot. We know his time is limited and valuable therefore we are thankful that he chooses to use some of that time to invest in his mentee.

Amanda Whaley- Tutor of the Year

Amanda has been tutoring with Generation One for well over a year now. She originally heard about the opportunity to tutor during an announcement at Ecclesia. Amanda has a great willingness to take on things and I’ve loved watching her interactions with the kids and the relationships that have formed over the past year. She is definitely been a great asset to have at tutoring and I appreciate all her hard work!!! Amanda has just begun to teach high school so I’m excited for the additional resources she is going to be able to bring in to tutoring as a professional teacher. My favorite thing I’ve observed about Amanda that is a true testament to what a beautiful impact she has made on these kids and how greatly they admire her, is how excited the kids get when they see her at church. They are so eager to get to run up to her and say hello and love on her. I value that about Amanda.

Kelley Benjamin- Generation One’s Volunteer of the Year

Kelley Benjamin has been volunteering with Generation One for almost 2 years now. One of her first experiences with us was as a camp counselor. She got matched with a very tough group and I honestly thought we may never see her again after camp. Quite the opposite happened. She immediately wanted to be matched up as a mentor and also began tutoring. Kelley is an incredibly involved mentor. Often times she stops by tutoring just to say hi to her mentee. Several months ago we approached Kelley about leading tutoring on a day in addition to the day she tutors. She immediately said yes and has been doing an awesome job ever since. As if that’s not enough, Kelley continuously donates supplies and snacks for the building and for tutoring. We are so thankful for Kelley and honored to name her Generation One’s Volunteer of the Year!

 

 

Ok, as promised! We have picked 3 tutors and 3 mentors to name as tutors and mentors of the year. Today we had the privilege of honoring 2 of the tutors and 1 of the mentors! We surprised them at their places of work/school and let them know they had been named with these honors. We also gave them some goodies J as a small token of our appreciation. Below you will see pictures of these tutors and mentors in action and being surprised!  You can also read our attempt to put into words what a blessing they are

to Generation One and the kids they work with. 

Kolbe Ricks -Tutor of the Year

Kolbe Ricks has been a tutoring with Generation One since early 2010.  She originally got connected to us through some friends who had heard about us at the University of Houston.  What makes Kolbe a great tutor is her consistency and willingness to take on helping with extra things that come up. One of those extra things is our tutoring reward trips.  Kolbe is one of our tutors who help out with that in addition to her usual day of tutoring, which is a huge help to me and something the kids absolutely love!!! I’ve enjoyed having her volunteer weekly  with us, and love that she is someone I can depend on to help me out with additional things if need be. I appreciate Kolbe as a tutor and now also as a close friend J

-Naseem Khonsari

Tutoring Program Coordinator

 

 

Brian Haley -Tutor of the Year

Brian Haley started tutoring with us this past fall after hearing about the opportunity at Ecclesia.  Brian has been someone who constantly shows up early, eager to help out with any needs.  He’s been working with some of our tougher younger students and has done exceedingly well with them.  Brian has a very giving spirit and it is very apparent in his work he is doing with the kids weekly at tutoring. It is so impressive to see him so committed to serving at Generation One on his day off from another awesome ministry he works with full time. I’m very thankful for his graciousness and his servant like heart!

-Naseem Khonsari

Tutoring Program Coordinator

 

 

Chanda McKinney- Mentor of the Year

Chanda stood out as Mentor of the Year for a couple of reasons. Chanda was the first mentor  with Generation One, when we first started mentoring in 2009.  She has now been a mentor for a little over two years.  She has logged over 150 mentoring hours!  She is always reporting creative things that she does with her mentee.  For example, she discovered that her mentee loves bowling, so they go bowling a good bit.  She also implemented the budget with her 9 year old mentee and had a successful result.  Lastly and most importantly Chanda is a follower of Christ.  She takes full advantage of any and all opportunities to explain more of Christ to her mentee.  I talked to Chanda once about disclipleship…to which she excitedly informed me of ways she was already implementing discipleship!  For example, Chanda’s son had left a craft from Sunday School in her car.  When the mentee got in her car and asked about the craft, she was able to explain all about the lesson to her.  Chanda is a full time mother, is self- employed and still faithfully logs hours on a monthly basis.

 

Thank you again Chanda for loving on your mentee so selflessly!!

 

-Michelle Moulton

Mentoring Program Coordinator

 

 

Generation One wants to take this week to thank each person that volunteers with us. We have 1 time volunteers that come in and clear lots, paint homes, build wheel chair ramps, repair and replace roofs and much more. Each of you has given a combination of your time, resources, sweat and heart. The results are noticeable and are blessing the members of the community. Thank you!  

We also have volunteers that give of their time on a regular basis. These volunteers include our basketball coaches, tutors and mentors. Each of you has a God given gift with children and we are so grateful that you chose to use it here! The kids we work with love you all. We know that some of the work you have done is evident now, but most of it helps plant seeds that the Lord will continue to water and grow and the results will be awesome!

This week we will celebrate National Volunteer Week by honoring a few of our mentors and tutors that really go above and beyond what is already an enormous blessing! We will tell you about each of them as we surprise them when they least expect it J Stay tuned!!!  

Thank you again!! We appreciate and love each of you!!!

-Love the Generation One Staff

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!!!

Imagine thousands of people praying for and working toward Houston being as famous for the quality of its schools as it for NSAS, the Medical Center, and its petro-chemical industry.  Save the dates of August 14-20, 2011 as Houston's week of focused prayer and service for at-risk children and youth.
Please plan on joining Generation One, as we join prayer warriors all over Houston in prayer!


Thank you :)

-Generation One

On Feb.20th I spent 5 hours w/ Jakedra. I implemented the budget idea as suggested. I took it a step further. First, telling her (and my son Caleb) that they had to work together by choosing how they would spend the $. They both were given $20. Their options were museums, zoo, etc. I explained the cost of each. I thought for sure the choice would be Children's Museum or butterfly exhibit, but the first choice was to roll down the hill @ the miller outdoor theatre. Lol!! Excellent choice! Free of charge :) Brilliant! It was a gorgeous day, not a cloud in the sky and we rolled down the hill. Running, racing and laughing out loud, FREE!! So precious! Next we rode the train around Herman Park ($3), then she bought a couple of things from the store. She paid herself, where she learned more than addition and subtraction, but a new self confidence to interact w/ others. Then the final moment came... My son had spent almost all his $, but Jakedra had not. They wanted to ride the paddle boat ($9 for all 3 of us), and Jakedra had an opportunity to give, so we could all ride! I'm so proud of her!!! She is such an amazing little girl. I'm so blessed to have her in my life :) Ultimately God is the potter, and I'm so grateful to have a hand in His molding such a wonderful little girl.

-Chanda McKinney
March 8, 2011

We want to thank everyone at Poetic Systems for all of the hard work they put into creating our new website. It looks awesome!!! Thanks for believing in Generation One's mission and giving us such an invaluable tool. We've already gotten many complements on the site and we look forward to being able to keep Generation One's friends, volunteers and supporters up to date on what we have going on!
-Generation One Staff :)