Students in the lower 25 percent of the student population come from homes with a lack of positive role models and have low socioeconomic status. Many of them are minority children. They have an average daily attendance of 75% and 59 % of them are frequent referrals to the discipline office. Evaluation reveals that a mentor meeting with a student for one hour per week raises the average daily attendance to 95% and decreases discipline referrals by 38%.

Polk County RSVP volunteer with Polk County Florida Schools, Sheldon Katsoff, is committed to helping young men succeed in school so they can succeed in life. He began mentoring one middle school student; now five years later he has twenty-seven middle and high school mentees.

The presence of an accountability partner who regularly checks on class participation, test results, behavior incidents and homework completion makes a powerful and lasting difference in the lives of students. Reading books with a man who values literacy and makes it a manly thing to do is the surest way to help students seek out opportunities to read and discuss

He began his efforts at Mulberry Middle School and was actively mentoring nine students by the end of the year. He participated in the “Real Men Read” program as a reading mentor. This program gathers a small group of young men who read books together and discuss them. Three years later, he created a “Young Men Read” program where his eighth grade students are now leading discussion groups about books with sixth grade students. That program has evolved into a weekly Breakfast Club, where the young men meet, read, discuss and eat breakfast provided by area businesses.

Over the past five years he has recruited over 20 mentors and trained more than 80 faculty members. These faculty members at Mulberry Middle and Mulberry High are currently mentoring more than 100 students. Together this collaborative team helps students develop self-confidence, school competence and a service ethic that extends to their homes and communities.

He believes that students should be prepared to handle money, which led him to leverage Boys and Girls Club Outreach Funds to provide the Dave Ramsey Financial Literacy for Teens material as part of the career exploration class at Mulberry Middle. As students learn the skills, they are expected to lead groups that include parents and staff. One student reports that his father is now saving a portion of his paycheck every week.

The Florida Commissioner of Education honored Sheldon Katsoff as one of the winners of the 2011-12 Outstanding School Volunteer Awards awarded to volunteers who have shown exceptional dedication and meaningful commitment to quality education in Florida.

In a world where young men find positive role models hard to come by, Sheldon Katsoff provides an example of commitment and leadership. He has motivated more than 100 adults to do the same and leveraged community resources to prepare young men for their future roles as wise consumers, effective parents, productive employees and engaged citizens.