Like most professionals, lawyers are inundated with a barrage of e-mail messages on a daily basis. But what if one e-mail message each week, or one each month, could have a long-term, positive impact on the life of a high school student? What if in 10 minutes, from the comfort of a home or office computer, a lawyer could encourage an at-risk teenager to stay in school, make good grades and aspire to attend college? More than 800 students in the Dallas Independent School District will benefit from such interaction this year, through the E-Mentoring, Esq. program established three years ago by the Dallas Bar Association and the Dallas Association of Young Lawyers. In 2003, Dr. Mike Moses, former DISD superintendent, reported that half of the district’s ninth-graders were dropping out of school in the four years leading up to graduation. And in 2003, only about 77 percent of Texans age 25 and older had a high school degree, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. “These appalling statistics should serve as a call to action for the legal community,” according to Brian Melton, DBA’s president in 2003. That year, Mr. Melton began developing the E-Mentoring, Esq. program which pairs a lawyer with a ninth-grade DISD student for a school year. A similar pilot project had already proven successful with IBM employees and the DISD. “The lawyers meet the students in-person at the beginning and end of the school year, and also have weekly or monthly contact via e-mail,” Mr. Melton explained. “ In the first year of existence, the E-Mentoring, Esq. program created 45 mentor/mentee pairs; in its second year, that number grew to about 95 mentor/mentee pairs at one DISD school (W.W. Samuell High School). This fall, however, program coordinators anticipate mentoring more than 800 students at approximately 16 schools. And this year, the pool of mentors will include lawyers, as well as administrators, secretaries, paralegals and recruiting coordinators within law firms. “At the Dallas Bar, we believe that investing in today's youth will benefit all of us tomorrow,” DBA President Mark K. Sales said. “We hope that the young people we touch through our E-Mentoring program will be encouraged to stay in school, graduate, and become productive teachers, lawyers, doctors, nurses, accountants, mothers, fathers — and better citizens.” In the past couple of years, the program has been administered by DBA members Sheri Crosby and Van VanBebber, with the assistance of the Dallas Bar Foundation. The E-Mentoring, Esq. program is coordinated through the DISD’s AVID program (Advancement Via Independent Determination), which helps track the success and provides the structure to the program. Most of the students who participate will be the first in their families to graduate high school, and most think going to college is out of their reach. The mentoring lawyers have the option of “talking” to students (via e-mail) about general topics, like their favorite class, hobbies and sports, or their graduation plans. The DISD requires students to have a “graduation plan” and know their current GPA and know what classes are needed to graduate. This past spring, participants saw tangible results from the program. In spring of 2006, the students in the AVID program, who participated in the E-Mentoring, Esq. program, scored 30 to 50 percentage points above their classmates as a whole on the standardized TAKS test. Sarah Kownacki, an associate with Thompson Coe, tells about her experience with the E-Mentoring Esq. program: “When I first volunteered, my first thought was ‘what are we going to talk about for nine months?’ My student didn’t like high school, didn’t care about her grades, and had little ambition to improve. However, she told me that she wanted to be a nurse.” “I tried to explain how much school, hard work, and good grades would be required,” Ms. Kownacki added, “and I encouraged her that she could easily do it with a little effort. We emailed about classes, grades, cheerleading and football, about teachers and attending extra study sessions. Within one or two e-mails, it was easy to see all I needed to do was encourage her to study and ask about her grades and classes. Sometimes I felt that just having someone to ‘share’ her grades with helped her care more about them.” “Before I knew it, we were sitting together at the end-of-year banquet and she was presented with the award for the Most Improved Student. I was so excited for her, and I was proud to hear that she passed every area of her TAKS tests! She had also improved her grades by more than 20 points in some subjects! It was one of the most rewarding experiences I had all year and it only took about one e-mail a month,” Ms. Kownacki said. In today’s society, there are obvious concerns about any adult who volunteers or teaches students; therefore, the DISD has created a system to expedite criminal background checks for the lawyers and other volunteers in the E-Mentoring, Esq. program. A convenient self-certification system is available on the DISD Web site, which utilizes information from the Texas Department of Public Safety. Those interested in joining this effective, yet convenient, program should contact Van VanBebber at Vanbebm@HughesLuce.com.