Brother to brother: The power of mentorship

// This is a machine generated transcript. Please report any transcription errors to will-help@illinois.edu.

[00:00:00]
Kennedy Vincent: From Illinois Soul, this is Dialogue. I'm Kennedy Vincent. Dialogue is an exchange about culture straight from the soul. You can catch us on Saturday mornings at 11 and Tuesdays at 7 p.m. on Illinois Soul. Mentorship is a journey of transformation, a shared path where guidance, understanding, and encouragement can redefine lives. Today on Dialogue, we explore the unique bond between a mentor and his mentee from the [C-U] 1 to 1 mentoring program. It's a school-based initiative of the Champaign [Unit 4 Urbana] District [116] that creates safe spaces for young adults to thrive while fostering meaningful connections with their mentors.

[00:01:00]
Shawne: So we're gonna eat salad every week. No, I want a burger or something. I wanna just eat salad. See, the thing about it is, if you keep eating salad over and over and over and over and over, you're gonna get tired of eating it and then you're gonna stop eating it. You get tired

[00:01:15]
Stacy: of burgers? No.

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Kennedy Vincent: That's Shawne and his mentor Stacy, having what might seem like a simple debate about lunch choices, but it's these everyday moments that build the foundation of mentorship. The C-U 1 to 1 mentoring program has been going on for 30 years, and Shawne and Stacy are an example of what this legacy of mentorship looks like. So, Stacy, what moment in your life made you realize that you wanted to become a mentor?

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Stacy: My first experience mentoring was right after high school graduation, a summer camp job, and I loved it, so I thought about teaching after that and, um, I've been doing it ever since 1992.

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Kennedy Vincent: Shawne, what did you first think of your mentor when you met him?

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Shawne: Why he bald. The first thing I thought was like where he from. He told me he was from New York. I used to do my history on New York and like because I like history, he told me you're from New York. I was like, you from the Bronx? He's not even from New York City. He's just from like a small city in New York. So he came, told me he from New York, like he from the city, but he really just from like, but yeah, I thought like, how old is he? Do we got kids? Do we got a wife? And why — like why, why, why did Mr. [Dow] pick him just to be my mentor?

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Kennedy Vincent: So what was it like first building trust or getting to know him deeper and then you kind of allowing him into your life.

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Shawne: It was basically like, I don't know because we've been mentees for a long time. Like seriously, when I first met him, I used to be like asking a lot of questions about New York. He'd be like, man, he's so funny so from New York. Like it ain't none here. And then like after that I got to know him. I stopped asking him questions about that. We started talking about other stuff like celebrities, my goals in school. I remember one time I had two C's and he came and was like, you better replace some C's with some B's or some A's. It ain't just all about C's. And then he was like, we're not playing basketball today. You got C's.

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Kennedy Vincent: And how'd that make you feel?

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Shawne: It made me feel like — because it was like he actually cared about my goals and like what I was doing in school and how I'm focusing. It's my phone.

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Speaker 3: Mentorship isn't just about guidance. It's about connection. Studies show Black male youth in mentoring programs have improved emotional well-being, mental health, and interpersonal relationships alongside stronger racial identity. That's from EvidenceBasedMentoring.org. Whether it's in the classroom or on the basketball court, you can see how close Shawne and Stacy's bond has grown.

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Stacy: This is what we go through every week,

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Shawne: right, and I'm whooping him in basketball.

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Stacy: Got to build his self-esteem, and if I start dunking on him every, every week,

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Shawne: you know, he can't dunk, you know, can you dunk? No, I can shoot, right? You're

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Kennedy Vincent: probably working towards it.

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Speaker 3: The need for more one-on-one connection between students and adults is why the program was created over 30 years ago. I spoke with Lauren Smith, the community outreach coordinator for C-U 1 to 1 mentoring program, to learn more about this organization and how it got started. She tells us more on why this impact is so important for the community.

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Lauren Smith: It was started by Barbara Linder in Urbana Middle School and at [Bottonfield] Elementary School, and she was volunteering in her child's classroom and saw the need for adults to come in. So many kids wanted that extra attention, and, uh, she researched some programs around the country, found one in Connecticut that she liked and modeled this program off of it, and got others interested and then they got a grant from the federal government because for a while it was just she, you know, trying to get mentors for all the schools, and that's pretty hard to do. Um, then she did get somebody in Champaign, but still with just two people, so they did get a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, and that was in 2004, so that was 10 years after they'd started that enabled them to hire coordinators at all the elementary and middle schools, and that's when I started at [Boontonfield] and Garden Hills. I was a mentor myself at the time and thought, oh, that would be a wonderful job.

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Kennedy Vincent: What do you think it's been like throughout all the years for the community to receive this program, for the children to receive the program, and also for people to join as mentors?

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Lauren Smith: The first 10 years, it was harder with just one or two people recruiting. It was harder to get people to come. Then when we had coordinators at every school, they were able to go out into the community, talk to businesses, have more of a presence in the community, and really get people to consider mentoring and, you know, consider doing this. It's not always an easy sell because we're talking about a long-term commitment. But most of our mentors come from recommendations from friends that are currently mentoring, and they tell people, I love doing this. It's an hour a week. I would never think of not continuing with my mentee because it's a great break in my week. I get just as much or more out of it than they do.

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Kennedy Vincent: I'm sure you face some of those challenges still today. Could you talk a little bit more about that?

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Lauren Smith: The challenges to getting mentors are, number one, this: the community is fairly transient. A lot of people are moving in and out, and we do ask for that long-term commitment. We know not everybody knows the future, so if you do move, that's OK. A lot of people are helping in a lot of different ways too, and it is, you know, it's hard to ask somebody to make one more commitment sometimes, but I would say, having been a mentor myself to two different students, it — it's just, you get more out of it, I think, than — and I feel like I gave. I'm still friends with my mentee today. She's 29. We still get together on a regular basis, and I — she helped me just as much, I think, as I made a difference to her. So, but it is getting the word out, um, making sure people know that it's fun. You're not doing homework, you're not, you know, trying to help them with algebra, or it's just hanging out with a student and not being a parent, not being a teacher, just having fun with them.

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Speaker 3: Just like Lauren, Stacy is looking forward to a lifelong relationship with [Shawne]. He's thinking decades ahead, instilling values and skills that will carry through adulthood, even into [Shawne's] future fatherhood.

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Stacy: So C-U Mentoring has a list of goals, and we go through a training. There are a list of goals that we are tasked to achieving every year. For me, I'm, if I'm mentoring someone, I'm always thinking about the future. It's not about mentoring for that period of time, so we're already talking about high school, right? So and it was already mentioned that we're talking about after high school. That is how I think about it with the goals that, uh, C-U Mentoring has. I have to make sure that I hit those benchmarks. I'm an educator, right, so we have to make sure that students, uh, reach the course objectives and — and deliverables that they're supposed to meet. However, we're always thinking about their life outside of the classroom and beyond graduation. Same thing with [Shawne]. I'm thinking about him at 20, thinking about him at 30. I'm thinking about him when he's my age, 52, right? And then those goals that he doesn't even know he has right now, how do I help him achieve those things. This is definitely the longest mentoring relationship that I've had in my lifetime and, you know, slated for possibly decades after this. You're gonna be an old man. I'm gonna be an old man mentoring you, yeah, until you don't — to the point

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Shawne: you don't need a mentor when I'm growing and I got kids.

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Stacy: Absolutely. So then guess what? You'll be reaching out to me. You'll have a whole new list of questions. Stacy, um, uh, I gotta deal with my son or my daughter in this — with this situation. How did you deal with this with your children? We'll have, you see, it

[00:10:11]
Shawne: never stops. I'm — I'm like I get older, I'm asking questions like what was your first job. Where did you work at? How did I

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Stacy: get that job?

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Shawne: How did you get that? And

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Stacy: what skills did I have to build and how did I have to prepare for that

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Shawne: job like that because once you get older. And then once you get in high school you gotta lock in. I noticed that when I got in middle school because like when I was in elementary school I used to just, it was elementary school. You don't have no grades. You just do work, but now you got grades and that's in elementary school like it's different because in here it shows what you actually improve, like how you improve, especially when I got in 7th grade. 7th grade is actually different, so you gotta really like stay focused.

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Kennedy Vincent: Shawne's reflection on his own growth is a powerful testament to the progress he's made. From questioning his potential to setting bold goals, he's learned that positive change is possible, even from a rough start. It's not just about surviving. It's about thriving and leaving a legacy for the future.

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Shawne: There's been a time when we used to sit down, he asked me what I want to be. Like he'd be like, do you wanna be a rapper? I used to wanna be a rapper. Then I turned to wanna be a comedian, but now I wanna do real estate. I — I played college basketball, but I don't wanna be in the NBA. Yeah, I just wanna — I wanna do real estate and own properties all over the U.S. Uh, out of the U.S., like I want to own a property in every single state. And I talked to him about that because he — he real wealthy and he — he tell me just whatever you just put your mind to anything whatever you put your mind to you can do it. I used to always down myself and feel like I could do a lot of things — basketball, math, history, science — and I got through all that. Like when I first got here, I didn't know how to do none of this. Now I'm really into it.

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Kennedy Vincent: How does it make you feel to see your own growth?

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Shawne: It made me feel a lot better because a lot of people 16 still doing what they were doing at 13 and I'm glad I grown up and because I looked around me because I grew up in a real rough neighborhood so it's real that I'm probably one of the only kids that's actually gonna come out doing something positive and — something positive, be known for something positive and not nothing negative. I'm talking about not just in my neighborhood, in the city throughout the whole [world]. I — I just want — I just want my name to be out there.

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Kennedy Vincent: Stacy, what has been the most powerful moment or pivotal moment for you in this mentorship?

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Stacy: You know, I'm thinking about this moment right now to hear Shawne say what he just said about the locking in. You don't understand when we're meeting the pushback I get all the time. Why do we gotta talk about goals? I don't want — I don't wanna think about the future. I wanna play basketball, right? Balancing the little bit of time that we have every week with the goal setting, the goal — even thinking about goals — for him to be able to just say this. This is what we've worked on in the last several years when he's talking — he's talking 4 years, right? This is 4 years he's talking about, going back to 4th grade with some of the stuff that he's just said. To hear him talk about that and talk about that as growth and to appreciate that — this is that moment — because I think if you're mentoring, that is that is the goal. Like you have to see the progress. You ask yourself, I know I do, OK, why am I doing this and — and what are my outcomes? What am I expecting? What do I consider success in mentoring? So I think — I think he is just kind of affirmed that I'm doing a great job mentoring and that's — that's — I'm happy. I'm set.

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Kennedy Vincent: Shawne, how does it feel to hear your mentor, someone who's always in your corner and helping you guide — like he's really proud of you.

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Shawne: Made me feel good because most times a lot of people — like a lot of young boys, it start right here when they grow up and do bad things — start right here when they just don't have no mentor like this to like — but I'm glad I got men in my life, not just him. I got men in my life that actually teach me the right things and he did a lot of positive things in his life, so I'm glad I got this kind of mentor. And that's pushing me to do positive things. I — I'm glad I got him, so it make me — it makes me happy.

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Stacy: So I'll just add he's talked about being interested in real estate, basketball, rapping. So whenever he says he wants to do something, I have follow-up questions, right? OK, so how are you gonna do that? What are your practices now that are gonna lead to your — your success in that? So when he wanted to be a rapper, first I was like, OK, so let's write every week. I'll get you a book. Let's write. He's like, no, I don't want to do that. I was like, OK, so he wants to do it on his own, which is fine. He would say some raps. I'd listen, that's fine. When he wanted to play basketball, I'm not a huge sports person, right, but because he wants to play basketball, uh, we play basketball, and I've gotten better at shooting, you know, right? So it's a win-win, you know what I mean? And he beats me a lot, and that's totally fine. Uh, but then when he started talking about real estate, what I would do, whether it's real estate or the lectures or art exhibitions or other projects that I'm working on, sometimes I would bring the checks in. I say I — I'd show him. I was like, so you're interested in real estate? This is what I got from, um, the tenants this month, right? Or, um, I wasn't here last week because I was traveling and exhibiting or lecturing or whatever. Here's that check from that. There is a — a connection between what I do when we're not together and then all the things that I say, but then this also is what this looks like as career-building opportunities and guess what, you can do these things too. You don't got to be into real estate. You don't have to be into artwork like I am — traveling, lecturing, it doesn't matter. Whatever you want to do, you can monetize that and live your dream off of that.

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Kennedy Vincent: Shawne, I'm curious, why real estate?

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Shawne: Real estate because I want — not just to get properties, I wanna give them to people who really need them, and I wanna purchase them myself. Because when I — when I used to be a rapper, I didn't understand because most rappers do a lot and most rappers — and it's just a lot and sign self over and I don't wanna be no idol. So I wanna just do real estate — that's something like you could be real wealthy off of and that's something that don't bring you into a lot of other stuff.

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Kennedy Vincent: As [Shawne] reflects on his future, it's clear that mentorship isn't just about guiding through today's challenges. It's about preparing to lead in tomorrow's world. With Stacy by his side, [Shawne] is not only reaching for his dreams, but setting his sights on an even greater horizon.

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Speaker 3: For both the mentor and the mentee, this experience has been rewarding, but you don't need to be in the program to be a good mentor. Stacy says that should be built into our community.

[00:17:45]
Stacy: I would say that if you have lived and experienced and survived that experience, you have something to share. I believe that mentoring is a responsibility for all of us who are older, right, who have wisdom. Now every older person does not have wisdom. I'm not gonna say that they all should be mentors. However, I do believe that we all have the potential to be mentors. I believe that Shawne could be a mentor right now to someone younger than him or even some of his peers because he has a vision for his future. He knows how to execute plans and knows how to make those things happen. He can be an influence among his friends and mentor them, right? So it's not always even about age, but I would say that to anyone who is either interested in mentoring or don't believe that they can mentor — it takes a vested interest and it — it really takes you being — having a heart to assess your past. The past matters, right? Surviving that past matters. Being successful, um, everything is not a horror story of our past, but there are horror stories in many of our pasts. But there are also many, many successes, and, um, we have the opportunities to share those with people so that they can make their own mistakes. I always like to tell people, don't make my mistakes, go make new mistakes, but don't make the mistakes I made because that's why I went through it so you don't have to.

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Kennedy Vincent: Shawne, what would you tell another young person about what it feels like to have someone in your corner believing in you every step of the way and just helping guide you?

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Shawne: I tell y'all, go try to find somebody like that because they can really help you out in life because a lot of people that surround you may be negative to you and not trying to bring you positivity into your life. Go for somebody like Mr. Stacy.

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Kennedy Vincent: Do you think maybe you might mentor in the future?

[00:19:36]
Shawne: Mm, yeah, that's another thing. I wanna start like a mentoring program and I wanna get young Black boys and talk about what to do and what not to do and I don't wanna just say it. I wanna do it like I wanna be a revolution. Yeah, I wanna get young Black boys and get them and do good things with them, you know, take them to places, take them across country, take them out of the country, get them, do right things with them, you know, give them jobs, get them in sports, get them in programs, because I know after my generation it's going to be crazy.

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Kennedy Vincent: [Shawne] and Stacy, thank you so much for speaking with me today.

[00:20:16]
Stacy: Yeah, thank you for having us. This was great.

[00:20:18]
Shawne: Thank you for having

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Kennedy Vincent: us. The C-U 1 to 1 mentoring program creates opportunities for mentors to meet their mentees one hour a week during the school day for one school year, but as we've seen with Stacy and Shawne, these relationships often grow into lifelong bonds that transform both lives. For Dialogue, I'm Kennedy Vincent.

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Patricia Bradford: I'm Patricia Bradford. Here's what's happening around town. On Feb. 11, head to the [Ilina] Union's Courtyard Cafe for a screening of "House Music, a Cultural Revolution," followed by a Q&A with host Duane Powell. "From Soul Train to House" begins at 7 p.m. Uncourt continues Thursday, Feb. 13 at 5 p.m. Listen and dance to the sounds of the Soul Syndicate Sextet at [Cranner] Center for the Performing Arts. And Street College Studio Saturdays is back for the spring 2025 semester. Your kids can learn how to make original music, DJ, engineer, and more. Head over to go.illinois.edu/studiosaturdays for more information. You're listening to Illinois Soul, FM 101.1, WILL FM HD2 with translator [266 AF] Urbana.

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Kimberly Schofield: You're listening to Dialogue from Illinois Soul. I'm Kimberly Schofield. Feb. 6 through Feb. 16, an all-Black cast is performing in the play "Skeleton Crew" at the Station Theater in Urbana. Late last year, I talked with director Lisa Gay Dixon and station board president Kendall [Chunson], and they told us why they believe this production is relatable to Central Illinoisans. Either Kendall or Lisa, can you tell me briefly what "Skeleton Crew" is about? What is the plot?

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Lisa Gay Dixon: I think Kendall and I could do that together, sort of tag team. So the major themes are about, quote unquote, the American dream, about race and how hardworking, working-class people come to deal with what started to happen with the economy as factories and things began to shut down in Detroit. It really is about how do people support each other, help each other? How do they get through those things that are — especially when it comes to race, how do they deal with issues of race in the workplace, in traditionally white, traditionally male environments? OK. I'm going to turn it over to you for more of the plot.

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Kendall [Chunson]: Yeah. So it's 2006, Detroit auto plant in the midst of the recession. Auto plants all around the city are shutting down and the one featured in the show is still going. There's rumors going around that it could be shutting down soon. We've got our — our four characters, Des and Shanita, are the younger, looking at their futures and seeing what they're going to be doing with their future. Shanita is pregnant and looking to start a family. Des is looking to open up his own auto shop. Then we've got Reggie. Older, he's a foreman, and we see sort of how we deal with the different power imbalances when we've got authority figures over people within the same community. And then Faye, the, uh, longtime worker, she's about to hit 30 years. She's looking forward to retirement, and all she asks is that they don't close before she hits that 30-year mark. So we see, uh, how we deal with all those relationships.

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Kimberly Schofield: How did this show "Skeleton Crew" get picked then for the station season?

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Kendall [Chunson]: Well, the Station Theater has a play selection committee. They spend [three to four] months looking through submissions that are made by the company members or community members. And "Skeleton Crew" was submitted, considered and accepted by the play selection committee and then voted on by the board. And this show really exemplifies the theme of our season, which is taking a magnifying glass to the American dream and its successes or failures.

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Kimberly Schofield: How did you become the director?

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Lisa Gay Dixon: I think as the rumor went around that I was retiring, it became sort of a — an idea that, hey, maybe we could get Lisa to direct "Skeleton Crew." And Kendall, as both producer and stage manager, he already sort of had a plan laid out about how he would get the designers and all that good stuff and has already created the poster, which is pretty awesome — that hopefully folks will be seeing around town soon. He's setting up everything as a fantastic stage manager should do.

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Kendall [Chunson]: That about sums it up. Yeah. I, along with Jackie Lowenstein, I work on finding directors for all of our shows. We take submissions. We also seek people out if we find a show that will really well fit for them and "Skeleton Crew" is great for Lisa.

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Kimberly Schofield: So this is a small cast too, which I think personally works well in the Station Theater as a black box theater. It is two men and two women are the characters and it's an entirely Black cast and mostly [Black] crew minus you, Kendall. Is that right?

[00:25:50]
Kendall [Chunson]: Yes, we have a few designers that are not Black, but for the most part, yes.

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Kimberly Schofield: Do you know anything about the playwright?

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Lisa Gay Dixon: She's one of the hot new playwrights in the last 5 to 7 years that has been discovered and has had her plays partially produced or completely produced on Broadway even. And she's sort of the second generation after Lynn Nottage and other folks. She's sort of the second or third generation of young African American playwrights who are sort of bursting onto the scene, dealing with both history, African American history, but also dealing with questions about the African American psyche as it has moved into the 21st century.

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Kimberly Schofield: What drew you to this show or this playwright?

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Lisa Gay Dixon: I had directed one of her shows at the nationally recognized Clarence Brown Theater in — I think spring of 2017. So I had heard of her, but that was when I was really deeply introduced to her work. And there's two things I really like about it. One is that the vernacular is real and honest and true. She writes the way people speak. Two, is that every once in a while when I was reading the script, I would just laugh out loud suddenly at something that happened or — or turn of phrase or something. So that is what I really like — is that it's not broad comedy, but there's definitely quite a bit of humor, I think, in the play.

[00:27:22]
Kendall [Chunson]: Yeah, the dialogue's really natural. It feels really real. I found myself — now, this isn't saying much — but crying in many of the scenes, but also found myself laughing out loud while reading it just because there are real moments between these characters who we've clearly known each other for a really long time. And sort of the relationship dynamic that we see is something that a lot of people can relate to.

[00:27:47]
Lisa Gay Dixon: And I have to say I'm quite thankful to see that when I moved back here from overseas many years ago. The Station Theater was around and had been doing things, but it's been really nice to see the evolution of it becoming more open and having larger and more diverse kinds of seasons and therefore bringing in different kinds of folks for direction, production, uh, the choice of plays, and all that stuff. So it's been really wonderful to see that and then also to be asked to be a part of it as well. And I'm really thankful about that. So I want — one of the things I've always wanted as an African American woman is for my community to be as invested — in their own way, as much as they can and in their own way — in the arts, in the community. I hope the Black community comes out in droves — men, women, no matter your age, no matter your size, your shape, all are welcome — because it's a joyous experience and I want everybody to take part in that or support that in however they can.

[00:29:02]
Kimberly Schofield: That was director Lisa Gay Dixon and station board president Kendall [Chunson] talking about their play "Skeleton Crew." It's in production at the Station Theater in Urbana from Feb. 6 through Feb. 16. For ticket information, visit stationtheater.com. I'm Kimberly Schofield. Coming up after the break, a dialogue with Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul about filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration over a birthright citizenship ban.

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Kwame Raoul: Symbolically, it has — it has meaning beyond the challenges that we're facing with immigration.

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Kimberly Schofield: Keep it here for more Dialogue from Illinois Soul.