Selling Young People On Success

On November 5, 2009, Dr. Mark Kaushal spoke at our lunch meeting regarding Selling Young People On Success (“SYPOS”), which is a 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to help young people to be successful in school and in life. SYPOS was founded by Alex Pinsky, who is the senior mentor for the organization. Mark comes from a family of physicians, but has not practiced medicine in the past 5 years. Instead, he has focused on the development of SYPOS. Mark is also the immediate past president of the Rotary of Skokie Valley.

Mark acknowledges that parents are the primary role models for students, but some parents are absent, or did not learn properly in their youth and therefore do not make good role models. SYPOS works with at risk kids, and tries to identify the underlying problems for kids, rather than just treating the symptoms. To that end, the mentors are taught to repeatedly ask the question “What is aggravating you?” of the student in as many different ways as possible. The students often have the right answers and solutions, but have to be prompted in the right way. And, if the proper answer comes from the student and affirmed by the mentor, it is believable and reassuring to the student.

SYPOS is aggressively looking for people to serve one day per month. SYPOS needs people to serve as mentors, and in roles such as accounting, bookkeeping, legal, video, management, and information technology. If you are interested, please contact Mark at SYPOS at 500 Skokie Boulevard, St. 600, Northbrook, IL 60062, 847-656-5104.