On the beaten path

Truth be told, I skipped a lot of classes in college. Sue Lezon, the advanced photography teacher at Plattsburgh State, would call my phone when I was missing from class and promptly tell me she'd better see me there in the next 15 minutes. It was never her responsibility to see me make it to class, or to take time out of her day to talk to me after encouraging me to do the best work I could, but she did, and I appreciate that so much.

I had the opportunity to have a group of kids come to work with me a few weeks ago from the Upward Bound Program at Plattsburgh State, and another girl who is attending Clinton Community College.

The Upward Bound program at Plattsburgh helps high-school kids to prepare for college and working by providing college visits, job shadowing and internships. I've seen quite a few of these kids pass through the doors of the Press-Republican, checking out what we do here, watching over our editors, reporters and photographers and learning about creating the news.

I took the girls who were shadowing and explained to them a little bit about photography, some of the basics of composition and other parts of my job like gathering information, especially names and the who, what, when, where, why that is present in every photograph. I gave them each a camera and drove them over to the local pre-school and let them take some photographs of kids in the classroom.

The other girl who came to work with me, Geena, was a different experience. I had met her mother at the doctor's office, and she told me about her daughter, who was incredibly interested in photography. After a couple weeks of scheduling differences I finally got to meet her and take her on some evening assignments with me. We talked in the car on the way to the mall, where we were going to take some photos, about college, jobs, salaries and especially what it was like to be out in the world, not knowing what you want to do with yourself yet.

Everyone has moments in their life where they have no idea what they want to do and that conversation and meeting these kids made me think about my life and the choices I had made. I wondered if someone would have taken the time out of their day to show me what real life work was before I went to college, maybe I would have gone to college sooner, or chose a different path in life. Maybe I wouldn't have, but I don't ever think I understood what it meant to enjoy life and work until I met Sue Lezon, the photography professor, my mentor.

Now, I could have declined to have these kids visit, or just sat in the office and let them watch over me as I processed photographs and got them ready for the next day's news, but I thought it would be so much better to engage them in their own artistic expression. I realized how important it is for people from the community to share their experiences with young adults. Maybe the trip encouraged one of them to be more artistic in their lives or follow a dream, or maybe just an impression that work can be fun and college important. Maybe I'll never know.

What I do know, however, is that mentoring is so important. I know it was enriching for the kids I took with me to work, and for me it was an inspiring experience that I wanted to share so that maybe more people will open up to younger generations and share life experiences.

It meant the world to me when Sue took me under her wing, and it has to mean just as much to every kid who met her or another person from the community who took the time to be a mentor.