Megan Wetzel is someone who understands and consistently sees firsthand the benefit of mentorship and discipleship.
Wetzel is the director of Kids Hope at Upland Community Church (UCC), a ministry focused on providing mentors for elementary and middle school students in the town’s local schools. Having served in this role since the fall of 2019, she has had the opportunity to witness many stories of children being loved on by mature adult figures.
Kids Hope is a national organization that has been active at UCC since 2004-05. It pairs churches with schools to allow connections within the local community. It has 764 programs across the country and 72 current programs in Indiana alone, Wetzel said.
Kids Hope mentors spend time with the kids for an hour every week, beginning at the start of the school year. These meetings then continue throughout the entire school year and often beyond.
“Kids Hope is a mentorship program,” Wetzel said. “It’s not a tutoring program, although academics can be done. The main purpose is to form a relationship with a kid and to show up faithfully every week and just spend time with them. This happens during the school day, so that’s kind of a unique part of the program as well.”
Before accepting the role as Kids Hope director, Wetzel served as a substitute teacher in the Eastbrook schools, continuing her teaching background. The ministry serves as a different way of connecting with the community other than working with kids in the classroom. It is a passion she has not looked back on since.
“When I heard the word ‘mentor’ and the words ‘working with elementary school students,’ I was like, this is for me,” she said. “I’ve always had a heart for mentoring. I was mentored in high school and mentored junior high students, and I still keep in touch with one of them to this day.”
Wetzel also balances home life, small children and part-time teaching with managing Kids Hope at UCC.
Supervising the program involves more than finding mentors to pair with students in the schools, though.
Besides recruiting mentors, Wetzel is in charge of interviewing, walking alongside and supporting them. The mentors are not simply anyone in the community. Rather, they are handpicked and often come from church or Taylor University. Wetzel meets and trains the mentors, encouraging them as they learn how to interact and point the students to Jesus.
One impactful story for Wetzel was when one of the students wrote a story about God and how He loves everyone, without the prompting. The mentor had been praying for three years for this student and their faith.
It is through times like these that she sees firsthand the power of mentorship.
Morgan VanDorp, junior at Taylor and member of UCC, has been involved with Kids Hope since her sophomore year. She discovered it through Wetzel at a church ministry fair.
“Part of tithing is not just your money, it’s also your time and talents,” VanDorp said. “Even though I may not be talented as an elementary education major, the ability to give back my time is important to me.”
VanDorp said Wetzel is very sweet and coordinated, having a deep passion for the ministry. She described her as being the ‘middle person’ who made everything possible and set up all of the connections.
Nonetheless, there are some difficulties for Wetzel as director of the program.
“A challenge has been to get male mentors,” Wetzel said. “This kind of thing seems to attract girls, and there are so many elementary aged boys who need a mentor and who need to be connected with a guy. So a challenge is to know how to get guys to be interested in something like this.”
Male mentors, as well as female ones, are welcome to apply in the fall. It is through ministries like these that Taylor students can make a profound impact on the community of Upland and act on their faith.
