"They assigned us a girl we were supposed to have a relationship with," says mentor Sheryl H.Cardozo "and now I really love her, in a good mentoring sort of way."

"I've learned how to make friends with people, just because they're there," says Cardozo's mentee, Rebecca E. Slatin, 13. "I wouldn't normally get to know some of the girls or some of the mentors in the program, and I got to know them and they're nice."

Some mentoring pairs have taken their relationship beyond the required meetings.

Three girls in the program--Minnie R. McMahon, Yvonne Davis-Dottin and Slatin--organized a slumber party with their mentors. The group of six watched movies, ate junk food and prepared for the next program meeting in which they ran an activity.

Mentor Sally E. Stone says her mentoring relationship has been particularly beneficial because she and her mentee come from very different backgrounds. Stone is Caucasian and from the South, while her mentee is Haitian and originally from New York.

Stone says because of the program, Sally has "a sense of the broader possibilities for life after the Longfellow School."

Showing young women the opportunities that an education provides is one of the most important aspects of Project Athena, according to Stemmermann, who is assisted by Instructor in Education Mary E. Casey in running the program.