Wayland Resident Makes a Difference For Graduating High School Senior

As a recruitment manager in the career office at Boston College, Jane Braley, 57, of Wayland, strives to make a difference in the lives of students working to better their futures. For the last two and a half years, she has built a relationship with Karla Turcios, 18, of Framingham, a first generation American, to help boost her confidence, raise her grades and research and apply to college. On May 12, Braley will be honored for the direct impact she has made in Turcios’s life by the John Andrew Mazie Memorial Foundation (JAMMF) during the Mazie Mentoring Program’s mentor recognition dinner. Turcios, who aspires to become a veterinary technician, will graduate from Framingham High School in June with honors.

JAMMF is a nonprofit organization that operates the Mazie Mentoring Program and is dedicated to transforming at-risk or disadvantaged youth into adults of promise. Founded in 1998, the unique goal-oriented scholarship award giving program pairs high school sophomores, who may lack parental guidance, financial resources or emotional support at home, with adult volunteer mentors who can help them thrive.

In March 2012, Braley was matched with Turcios and was challenged to help expose her mentee to a larger world. Turcios, whose parents are El Salvadorian natives and are less familiar with the American school system and the college application process. She was raised in a household that revolved around strong family values and their local church. Turcios juggled going to school with working at a local sandwich shop with watching her younger brother while her parents worked.

“When I first met Karla, I thought she was very kind and well-mannered, but she was on the quieter side and needed to find her own voice,” says Braley. “Neither of her parents went to college and so it was a priority for them to get their children through high school and into college or another post-secondary training program.”

The duo began to meet once a week to work on Turcio’s homework, take trips to Boston to explore the city and museums. Together, they would bake at Braley’s house, participate in community service initiatives and talk while walking around Lake Waban in Wellesley. In addition, they visited a handful of Massachusetts-based colleges and narrowed down a list of schools to which Turcios could apply. One of Turcios’s favorite activities was shadowing one of Braley’s friends, a local veterinarian. Turcios’s two older siblings completed the Mazie Mentoring Program and went on to further their educations, so the pressure was on for Braley to help her mentee do the same.

“Since becoming a Mazie mentee, Karla has learned to advocate for herself by asking teachers for extra help when needed, working to improve her grades and taking charge of her own future,” says Braley. “When it came time to apply to schools, I encouraged Karla to see her guidance counselor to learn about SAT prep, and the college and financial aid application process. She did what I suggested, worked hard in class and got herself into one of her first choice schools on scholarship, Mt. Ida College in Newton. I couldn’t be more proud of her.”

In the last 16 years, the Mazie Mentoring Program has helped more than 500 young people go on to lead more fulfilled and successful lives while inspiring the adult volunteer mentors who work with them.  Each year, 60 Framingham and Waltham High School students are accepted into the program. More than 90 percent of those students graduate from high school and more than 70 percent go on to college or other post-secondary training programs.

 “As a mentor, it’s wonderful to be able to share some of your own knowledge and interests and expose a young person to opportunities they may otherwise not have had,” says Braley. “As a mentee, you gain a trusting relationship that grows outside of the family unit and school, someone you can talk to and seek advice from without judgment.”

For more information about the Mazie Mentoring Program, to become a mentor, or to support the John Andrew Mazie Memorial Foundation, visit www.mazie.org. Applications for volunteer mentors are always gratefully accepted.