Emerging Leader | Shanessa Carson

Grade: 11th
School: Heights Preparatory School
GPA: 3.49
Activities: Street Team, Leadership Institute, JV Volleyball Team
Post H. School: Hopes to attend Texas A&M

Shanessa was matched with her mentor, Erin Lewis, in 2009. She has been part of the Leadership Institute for 2 years, participating in Street Teams and the summer internship program. She is now part of the Mercy Street Student Leadership Team and helps lead a small group of 6th and 7th grade girls each week.

Shanessa is a leader not only at Mercy Street but at Heights, as well. Her Bioethics teacher, Mrs. Gaines, had this to say about her: "Shanessa is a very active participant in my class. She continually impresses me with her participation. Shanessa is a critical thinker, and the comments she adds to our class discussion are very valuable and always offer a unique perspective. Shanessa also impresses me with her character. She is a born leader who is willing to stand up for what is right. There have been a few instances over the last couple of years where she has mediated conflict amongst friends. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to teach Shanessa the past 3 years. She is a rock star both inside and outside the classroom."

Mentoring High's and Low's

Working with Dee is full of High's and Low's.
So ended up with these great floor seats for today's SMU game. We were late getting to the game partially due to the "crap" he fights thru everyday. So upon waiting for Dee to get ready, I learned two things. One of his teammates had been shot the night before (should be fine, thank God), and his mom got laid off after 9 months from a great job at a call center.

The up's for the day were this text I got back from him last night - "I really thank God for leading you into my life. You have showed me a lot and I just wanna say thanks for everything you have done for me. I have never had a person care about me like you have, so I just want to say I appreciate you." But the other HIGH, you will love, is he's only played football one year, since I've been his mentor, and that was in the 8th grade at Edison, and I swear it was Vince Young out there. So he got invited to a football camp that Baylor hosted. They clocked him in a 40 at 4.3!

Let's get the kid in Orange!

Have a great week.

Dee is the kid next to me, the other two young men are the boys Trey and Melissa Hill have taken in and are raising as their own.

Sweet Retreat

We believe the First Annual Pine Cove Mentor/Mentee retreat might have been the best event that Mercy Street has ever done!  This was a sweet 24 hour time frame of connecting and building relationships.  All activities were very intentional - from the get to know you questions for the drive down to Pine Cove, to meal times together, to the times of worship.

Cabins were assigned with 5 mentors and 5 mentees, and at lunch, those same 10 people would sit together and get to know each other better! This was a great opportunity for mentees to make new friends and for mentors to get to connect and make friends with other mentors.  This always helps in the journey to have someone else who understands what you’re going through in the trenches and in the good times.

Free time is always the highlight of being at Pine Cove, and we had a whole 3 hours! Horseback riding, basketball, barn swing, canoe riding at sunset - you name it, we did it. There was even a time for mentors and mentees to conquer fear side-by-side on the double zip line!  We finished the afternoon with a team activity: the whole cabin had to work together to come up with a skit to perform using the random props that were left in a bag in their cabin.  Later, everyone got dressed in camouflage and put war paint on their faces for the theme night.  The game took place in the woods and the mentees worked towards a goal to find certain places the mentors tried to stop them.

One mentor, in particular, felt like he had done a poor job mentoring lately and really wanted to use this retreat as a springboard to a deeper relationship. The Lord was gracious to answer that prayer and he left the retreat feeling energized and ready to tackle the rest of the year with his mentee!

The opportunity to be with your mentee for 24 hours allows mentors to see what their mentees are like out of their comfort zone, not too cool for school all the time, but to hear them really share their hearts.

We had an awesome time of worship Saturday night where Darnell spoke about cultural differences and the gospel followed by a breakout time with reflection questions. It was neat to see mentors and mentees all over the room asking questions and sharing.  One of the last questions was for the mentee to make up their own question, and we’ve heard from several mentors that there were some good ones asked like, “Why did Jesus have to die?”, or “How do you tell someone about Jesus?” Good spiritual conversations were had that might not have taken place otherwise.  Later that night we had a camp fire where we roasted marshmallows and had hot chocolate with chocolate chip cookies.

Sunday morning we had a mentor enrichment, followed by a sweet time of worship where Darnell encouraged the mentees that they could be used by God right now while they are young. He used the analogy of a small acorn growing up to be a huge oak tree.  We then had Timothy, an alumni mentee, challenge the mentees to take advantage of their mentors because there are lots of kids who don’t have mentors.  Mentors are there to be your friend, not like another adult that tells you what to do all the time, but truly a friend that’s going to help you through life and guide you.

At the end everyone was given a small journal with these instructions: the mentor is to write a prayer for their mentee and the mentee is to write a prayer for their mentor. After the prayers were written, they switched and got to keep those journals as a sweet keepsake for each to have for years to come, reminding them of the ways the other is praying for them. We also wrote prayers for West Dallas on poster boards and it was moving to see prayers about protection and safety for West Dallas.

Overall it was just an incredible event on all different levels! We plan to keep this tradition going, so please make plans to come next year!

Check out our photo gallery!

A Special Thank You

Hi, my name is Deandre.

I’m happy to say I just graduated from UT Arlington with a Bachelors of Business Administration in Marketing.

I’m the first in my family to earn a college degree.

I just wish my mother could have been there…

I grew up in West Dallas and graduated from Pinkston High School in the top 30 in my class. I assumed that meant I was ready for college, but my Mercy Street mentor along with ScholarShot guided me to Mountain View Community College first. It was clear at Mountain View I needed more and when I did transfer to UTA I still struggled getting a 1.9. This put my public grants at risk so I knew I had to buckle down.

ScholarShot helped me financially but more importantly they provided guidance to navigate college that I would not have from home. I worked hard, and it paid off as I graduated with a 3.1. I work for a major commercial bank in Dallas making about twice my family's total household income. I'm very grateful. I don't take any of this for granted. There are many answered prayers.
    

I wish my mom could have been there but she was recently re-incarcerated. Both my parents love me but have struggled with drug addiction all of my life. My father and more importantly my brothers and sister did come to see me graduate. My younger sister and brothers are working to get their lives together and I'm pleased to say my sister is enrolled at El Centro College thanks to ScholarShot. I hope my brothers will be next.

I know that earning this degree is a game changer for my future and my family. I know that my making it has told my brothers and sister they can too. I know there are a lot of students out there like me.

Thank you for supporting me through ScholarShot. You've helped change my life!  I hope you'll consider helping others as well.

In Christ,

Deandre J.

BS, UTA

Story provided courtesy of ScholarShot.

Basketballs and Hello Kitty!

In 2014, a group from Highland Park High School held a drive to collect items for the Carver Elementary "Carver Store". The response was so overwhelming that they decided to do it again! Last month, the Youth for West Dallas, the name they've chosen for their group, organized another successful drive for Carver! Below is an email sent out to the parents and students who participated.

MOMS, DADS, FRIENDS, FAMILY!!! 

Do you ever feel overwhelmed and honored because you’ve been privileged with the opportunity to be a part of something really special? Have you ever sat in awe, without words, as you watched a purposeful project unfold right before your very eyes? Well, that’s how I felt all last week. As the Youth for West Dallas Executive Committee rallied to collect items, donations, purchase items, drop off items, and prepare for the drive - I watched with gratefulness as our community came together to help those that needed some extra bright spots in their days. On behalf of the cute kids at Carver … THANK YOU!!! Your donations were absolutely perfect! From the basketballs to the daily journals to HELLO KITTY (I was told that they little girls love the Hello Kitty section) to shampoos and toothpaste. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! Another off the charts successful Carver Supply Drive! 

Another cool part of the drive was when the staff at Mercy Street took time out of their day to come share with us about how your donations will bless the students of Carver. Natalia Rodriguez (mentor coordinator) and Nicole Livingston (communication & events) shared with the students about the supply room and what these items will mean to the children. Then Sam Flores (Director of Development) led us all in prayer for the school and their community. It was VERY cool to have the parents and the teens pray together (yes, some teens prayed out loud- lol) for Carver and the community of West Dallas. 

In addition, you guys donated $1,800 to Mercy Street this semester! How cool is that! Thank you so much! 

All of this being said, my deepest hope is that you are blessed because EACH OF YOU has blessed another. Thank you for partnering with your children (not just with West Dallas), but in all the different areas of your lives. It’s awe inspiring to see the purposeful parenting and the intentional investing that’s taking place. I know this is a small piece of a much bigger puzzle. Words aren’t enough….. 

It’s really cool to come together as families in this way. THANK YOU! 

xoxo- Mel

Mentors | Our Most Precious Resource

Dear Mentor,

One of my favorite guilty pleasures is a reality TV show called Gold Rush. For those who have not seen it, it is about three men and their crews who have bet their futures on trying to strike gold in the Alaskan Klondike. The show is full of all the reality TV fake docu-drama and cliffhanger decisions that always seem to work out just in the nick of time. The climax of each season is when they tally their findings to see if their efforts have produced enough gold to pay the expenses and make a profit. Sometimes they do, sometimes not.

In the show, gold is the most precious resource. At Mercy Street, you, a mentor, is our most precious resource. And we need more of you! Our efforts to find mentors often feels a lot like panning for gold. Sometimes you hit, sometimes not. Lately it has been pretty barren panning. So this letter is a mining effort, really. We are hoping to strike it rich (with new mentors)!

We need 75 new mentors by the end of this school year. That is a lot, but it is doable. We have the demand and the capability to support the demand.

So here is what I am asking of you: In this moment, please think about someone you might know who would benefit from joining this mentoring journey (and be awesome at it) and then personally invite them to one of our Mercy Street 101’s. Let them know that you hope they will become a mentor and that you think they will benefit, just as you have benefited. Lord willing, we will do the rest.

Here is the info on the Mercy Street 101 ( http://mercystreetdallas.org/opps/mentor/ ), including dates and times. The 101 is a basic overview of the ministry and the introduction to any ministry opportunity at Mercy Street. If you have been mentoring for a while it might even be a beneficial refresher course for you too.

I cannot thank you enough for the service you are already giving. The kids and community of West Dallas are being transformed through your efforts. I hope you are being transformed too. We are making this plea because we believe deeply in the mission and power of “mutually transforming relationships” and want more folks to experience it.

I hope to see you at a Mercy Street 101 soon.

Sincerely,

Trey Hill

The Time is Now

Every year, a group called CCDA holds a conference where hundreds of groups similar to Mercy Street gather in one city to learn from and be encouraged by each other. The National Student
Leadership Intensive is a conference within the conference, created specifically for student leaders. This year, the conference was held in Memphis, Tennessee, and a group of ten Mercy Street students had the opportunity to attend.

The students who attended are part of the Leadership Institute, meaning they are active participants in Street Teams at Mercy Street and also completed the summer internship program. In order to earn a spot on this trip, these students were required to read a book called Kairo Returns and pass a test about it. The book describes the journey of an “urban pilgrim” named Kairo who after being transformed by the Gospel, returns to his own community ready to work for its transformation.

Our students identified with Kairo, and went to the conference excited to learn about community development and leadership. They attended workshops and classes on topics ranging from immigration to education to leadership. They explored a new city and went on a civil rights tour in Memphis. They got to know students from around the country with different backgrounds.

After her time at CCDA, one student said “I have learned a lot these past three days in Memphis. It’s now time for us youth to make changes in our community.” We at Mercy Street believe deeply in these emerging leaders and are thrilled to watch God move them toward servant leadership in West Dallas. Isaiah 61 paints a beautiful picture of a restored community, and we pray it will be fulfilled through these students: “…In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for his own glory. They will rebuild the ancient ruins, repairing cities destroyed long ago. They will revive them, though they have been deserted for many generations.” We are glad to have these students back in West Dallas and are celebrating all that was gained from another year at CCDA!