MEST announced the "2011 Mentoring Program for Students of Multicultural Families," in which university students support elementary and middle school students from multicultural families with tutoring and counseling. The program launched in 2009 in order to help increasing number of students from multicultural background adjust to school life and improve in basic academic skills as well as to encourage university students volunteer for children from multicultural families.
This year, MEST will provide a total of 5 billion won to 7,000 students of 40 universities who will offer tailored services such as tutoring and counseling to children of multicultural background, helping stable and healthy development of them. In particular, middle school students and those in rural areas, who did not benefit from the program before, will start receiving mentoring service. Mentors also will be diversified from students of education universities to those of engineering and science departments as well as humanities department.
Mentees will be elementary and middle school students of multicultural families who are selected by local offices of education taking into account the characteristics of the area and school. Over 20% will be middle school students, and more than 30% will be selected from rural areas.
Mentors will be diligent and hard-working university students who can play multiple roles as tutors and counselors. Among those who are in the bottom 70% of income, students will be selected with professor's recommendation. In particular, students who have served as mentors in previous year, attended a course on multicultural understanding, and applied for working in rural area, will be given advantages. Selected mentors will receive 10,000 won/hr of scholarship, and universities will cover other expenses such as transportation. To vitalize mentoring service in rural areas, mentors who serve there will receive 12,000 won/hr scholarship.
Mentoring program will be run in a regular manner at least once a week for 2 hours. In principle, the service will provided on 1:1 basis, but 1:2 mentoring is also possible when the mentees include a student from non-multicultural family. The mentoring sessions will be held after school on weekdays, and weekend service will be provided for students in rural areas. Mentors and mentees will meet at public places such as schools and community centers.
All universities may apply for the program including the Korea University of Education that participated in the program last year and universities with a course on multicultural understanding. Universities that want to participate in the program will receive a list of elementary and middle school students from local offices of education, select mentors who meet basic requirements, and apply for the program to the Korea Student Aid Foundation (KOSEF) by June 7, 2011. To maximize the effect of the mentoring program, base universities in each area will be selected to provide training to mentors, while monitoring the program through mentees, parents, and teachers.
