SYCAMORE | More than seven years ago, a DeKalb County judge decided he’d had enough with traditional punishment for minors with minor offenses.

Instead of the typical community service sentence, Judge Wiley Edmondson assigned 10-page reports. This sentencing evolved into what is now known as the Juvenile Learning Mentor Program.

Volunteers are teamed up with juvenile offenders and help them write the report, while serving as a role model. Starting next January, Megan Rosencrans, a senior political science major, will be a mentor.

“It’s good to know there’s a program that’s rehabilitating the youth in this area,” she said. “You can make a difference for however long you’re going to be here. It’s good to help out the community that you’re going to be living in.”

Keri Nelson, the current coordinator of the program, has been working on the program for six years. While previous coordinators have been working on what she refers to as the “legwork,” she personally oversaw the first session of the program in January 2001.

“The first couple of sessions took a while to tweak,” Nelson said. “[We] worked out the kinks and fine-tuned what we wanted the program to be.”

The 10-week program is geared toward juvenile offenders who do not have major offenses.

“[We] take all offenses except sex or violence,” Nelson said.

The number of available slots in the program is limited, allowing 10 to 12 participants per session and two sessions per year. There are other programs for those who aren’t accepted to participate in, such as female empowerment and anger management.

About 10 percent of students do not complete the program.

“Those are kids that generally start the program, but get incarcerated or drop out or stop showing up,” Nelson said. “Kids that get removed from their homes and their communities end up not graduating.”

The program takes place at the Founders Memorial Library every Saturday. A majority of the mentors are NIU students.

The Juvenile Learning and Mentor Program was recognized by the National Association of Counties in 2003. Cook County is currently the only county in the United States to run the program, according to Nelson.

The program’s future goals include tracking the student’s academic performance and spreading the word.

“We’ve seen in the past years that kids get involved with school,” Nelson said. “[We] track the kids’ performance in school to see if they’re more successful when they’re in the program. We hope we can work together with school systems and see if these kids are academically successful.”