Diversity and Inclusion Matters

Chapter 10When to Get CEO Involvement

What Friends Do

Years ago, I had the privilege of mentoring at the Stanley Hupfeld Academy at Western Village in Oklahoma City. The Hupfeld Academy is an elementary charter school in an economically depressed area of Oklahoma City. The school is sponsored by the Oklahoma City Public School Board and INTEGRIS Health. Most of the children come from single-parent homes, and 90% of the children are on free or reduced-price lunches. INTEGRIS Health adopted this school several years ago and allows all of its employees the opportunity to mentor a child for one hour a week without having to take time off.

On one particular occasion, when I went to visit my mentee, he had gotten into trouble. Apparently, his behavior had been quite bad all week. My mentee was no angel, but this was somewhat unusual. We talked a little bit about it – not too much because he was still in a bad mood and not very talkative. We worked on some homework, and then he wanted to go outside to play basketball. I told him no because his behavior had been bad during the week, and basketball was a reward for good behavior. This clearly made him mad, and he pouted quite a bit, finally refusing to speak to me at all. I found this somewhat disrespectful, and I began to think maybe I should tell him that I was not going to keep coming back if he was going to be disrespectful to me. For whatever reason, I did not say that I might not keep coming back if his behavior did not improve. ...