Fidelity Investments volunteers mentor local students

Employees of Fidelity Investments recently celebrated a successful first year of empowering and educating local students through an email mentoring program, Fidelity Email Pals. 

Fidelity Investments partnered with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Cincinnati and the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative to bring the virtual program to life. 

Fidelity mentors were paired with local students in the seventh, eighth and ninth grades from Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Cincinnati in Lower Price Hill, Over-The-Rhine and Covington.

Students emailed their mentors once each week, discussing topics related to the Boys & Girls Club Diplomas to Degrees program, hobbies, activities and career-related aspirations. Volunteers learned early on, however, that most of the students didn’t possess soft skills, like how to write an email. 

“We discovered that students needed guidance on basic communications skills," says Nicole Gordon, Fidelity Investments community relations manager. "Our mentors worked with their mentees to help them share their thoughts more clearly and communicate more effectively via email."

Mentors coached students on how to articulate what they were thinking while also inspiring them to take more active roles in their lives, including getting to school every day, studying and learning about college.  

“This is a crucial time for a lot of students,” Gordon says. “They need positive role models coaching them and cheering them on.”

At the end of this year’s program, mentors and mentees worked together to create 200 school supply kits to be used as summer learning materials for local students in the community. 

Fidelity Investments hopes to expand the program in the future to allow for more face-to-face interaction between mentors and students.

Do Good:

•    Follow Fidelity Investments on Twitter.

•    Help mentor students at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Cincinnati.

•    Volunteer with Cincinnati Youth Collaborative.