The Ladder is a structured environment of service learning, leadership development, and cascading mentorship. It is a club for kids who are interested in health careers. Designed to expose kids to health careers in an integrated manner, it is a cascading mentorship program. An exciting component of The Ladder is that it is an inter-generational club with members from fourth grade all the way through practicing physicians and includes all the steps in between.
The Ladder is more than a club for kids who want to become doctors; it is a tool that kids who live or go to school in North Minneapolis will use to change each other’s lives .
The Ladder is a tool that will:
– build a community of learners and leaders.
– create supportive inter-generational and peer-to-peer bonds.
– bridge the divide between communities and their academic neighbors and create mutual support.
– link its young members and their families to a viable pathway for capacity building through personal and community enrichment.
The Ladder is a tool and the the Ladder is a path. It is built with the efforts of the members to support each other and to be the change they want to see in the world.
Goals for this innovative mentorship program include:
– teaching both the skills and the personal characteristics needed for kids to gain experience through medical and community service learning projects.
– nurturing the character traits that are consistent with predictors of success in the educational process and professional careers.
– removing the stigma of achievement that can be present for kids in challenged communities by developing social bonds for support and mutual advancement.
– creating an infrastructure of cascading mentorship and service learning in the setting of health career training.
The monthly meetings of The Ladder are the Second Saturday of each month and are the foundation and also the steps to build strong bonds.
Starting in fourth grade,
progressing through the critical stages of middle school and high school,
on to college and medical school,
and then to resident physicians and attending physicians,
all members of The Ladder.
“Lift as you Climb, Build as you Grow”
TheLadder 