Rachel Hadaway has been a mentor with Everybody Wins! Iowa with students at CFUM or Moulton for 7 years. She first joined EWI when she worked at MidAmerican Energy. She got involved because a group of her co-workers mentored at a school and she became interested in joining as well.
Rachel grew up in Iowa and went to Iowa State, she has a degree in Computer Engineering. She now works in the financial services sector working on IT.
Rachel’s favorite part of reading with her mentee every week is getting to see them and hear what is going on in their life. She shares that the most successful way for her to have a relationship with her mentee is to take an interest in what they are interested in. One of her mentee’s, Cam, enjoyed wrestling so she went to the Des Moines Public Library and picked out books with a sports theme. These include biographies of famous athletes like Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali. She says that she has found some great books at the library and the selection of books she has found has helped books not be as intimidating to her mentee.
She also shares, “I really believe it’s an hour out your week to have fun. If you have a personal goal to read more and help out in your community, it’s a great way to do both!”
In addition to being a mentor with Everybody Wins! Rachel enjoys doing crafts like knitting and crocheting. She also plays “mallet percussion in the Des Moines Community Band and loves to collect things with pineapples on them.”
In this time of Covid-19 Rachel says that she “really misses getting to read with a student each week and see all the students and mentors! I hope all the Moulton kids are having a safe and fun summer the best they can. See you all in the fall!”
Everybody Wins! thanks Rachel for her creativity and dedication to mentoring.
Congrats Rachel…. Grandma Hazel and your parents would me so proud, as well as your friends????