Meredith Lynt

Meredith has dedicated the majority of her career to developing, expanding and sustaining mentoring programs that raise young people’s aspirations and create a strong sense of belonging to community. Her leadership at the Maine-based Trekkers organization supported its exponential growth at the local level through expansion of staffing and direct youth programming, as well as at the state and regional levels through the design and implementation of the Trekkers Training Institute (TTI) which oversaw the replication of Trekkers’ core principles in six sites across the state. Meredith has designed and delivered training, technical assistance, and conference/keynote workshops to dozens of organizations, schools, and communities seeking to align their youth programming with evidence-based best practices in mentoring and youth development, and she continues to support Trekkers’ mission as a per diem consultant, trainer, and coach. In addition to co-parenting a two and half year old, Meredith moonlights as a per diem Youth Mental Health First Aid Instructor with NAMI Maine and a residential counselor at a treatment program for adults experiencing co-occurring substance use and mental health challenges.

Describe your role as the Graduate Assistant for the Promise Scholarship Program.

My role is to support, train, and coach Promise Scholars Mentors in evidence-based practices that support the academic and social-emotional needs of Scholars in successfully achieving degree attainment at the University of Southern Maine. I also hope to help the Promise Scholars Program think about how to define and measure the practices that lead to positive outcomes for Scholars.

Why are you excited about this GA position?

I am most excited to support the Promise Scholars program in implementing evidence-based mentoring activities that foster a deep sense of belonging, on campus and off, as students transition into their post-secondary experience at the University of Southern Maine. I look forward to leveraging my experience in mentoring program design, social and emotional learning, experiential learning, and service learning to catalyze outcomes for the program as well as leverage my experience defining and evaluating program outcomes. As a future clinical counselor, I am particularly interested in supporting emerging leaders and the transition from adolescence into early adulthood, so this GA position serendipitously integrates my past experience with my own future aspirations.