A Meaningful Match: Connecting Mentors and Students Through AT&T Byron Nelson Golf Tournament

A mentor’s impact on a young person’s life can be immeasurable – they provide guidance, encouragement and a sense of togetherness. Yet today, 1 in 3 young people will grow up without a mentor¹. And for those who do have a mentor, COVID-19 has forced many of those relationships to hit pause while the country navigates the realities of social distancing.

In response, through AT&T’s $10 million Distance Learning & Family Connections Fund, we’re committing more than $500,000 to organizations focused on connecting young people with meaningful mentor relationships – online.

To kick off this part of the Distance Learning & Family Connection Fund, we’re teaming up with CareerVillage.org and tapping into some of sports’ most notable athletes to offer advice on topics ranging from how to score a valuable internship to choosing the right major. Professional golfers Jordan Spieth and Maria Fassi will join influencer Tisha Allyn, Byron Nelson tournament head, John Drago, and executives from AT&T to answer career and mentoring-focused questions submitted through the CareerVillage.org. Founded to democratize access to career information and advice for underrepresented youth, CareerVillage.org crowdsources answers to students’ questions about careers.

We’re also making contributions to help ensure mentoring relationships for our young people persist through this crisis and beyond.  A $250,000 contribution will support an innovative collaboration between MENTOR and iCouldBe, which have joined forces to develop the Virtual Mentoring Portal. The portal offers a safe and monitored digital platform for mentors matched with mentees to continue their relationships while separated due to COVID-19. In addition, AT&T is making a $100,000 contribution to Technovation, an organization that works to help young people become leaders, creators and problem-solvers. Through this contribution, Technovation is creating a series of virtual mentoring videos that take middle school aged children through the journey of building technology that addresses problems they care about. 

To hear more about the important work these organizations are doing, tune into the rebroadcast of AT&T’s Byron Nelson Golf Tournament, May 7 – 10, on the Golf Channel and CBS.

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