Former First Lady of New York Matilda Cuomo has long been dedicated to improving the lives of others, especially children. Matilda talks with Dr. Oz about her organization Mentoring USA, a school-based, one-to-one mentoring program that is changing the lives of young people across the country. She also talks about her book The Person Who Changed My Life: Prominent Americans Recall Their Mentors.
Mentoring USA aims to keep kids in school and, through the guidance of a caring adult, helps them turn their often negative attitudes into positive ones. "We have to be able to keep these kids in school, change their attitudes, change everything that is deterring them from understanding that if you are going to unlock the doors to success in your life, you need the keys," she says. "The key is mentoring for these children."
The program is successful not only for the hundreds of young people being helped, but for the mentors who give their time, Matilda says. "The mentor feels so good [they get] the satisfaction [in] what they see—the change in the child," she says. Matilda says mentoring is a very serious undertaking and people who want to mentor should be able to dedicate at least an hour a week to the cause. "Mentors in your life cannot be forgotten, and in the training that is what we tell the mentors—'You will be part of this child's life, they will never forget you,'" she says.
