In a tiny room off the Oneonta High School library, Miki DeLaFleur and Marie Hegeman discussed books, shared experiences and became friends.

In this and other small spaces at four Oneonta schools, a little-known program is quietly making a difference, two lives at a time.

Miki, a smart, engaging 17-year-old with a gift for writing and a dream of working for the FBI, met Marie, a married social worker with no children, through the Oneonta City School District Mentoring Program.

The 6-year-old program has a small budget (less than $1,000 a year) and a big goal: to reach kids "on the border," says Greater Plains Elementary School Counselor Jeanne Shea. "The kids that have this great potential, but they're missing one piece."

This school year, 39 mentors spent 30 to 40 minutes a week with students at Greater Plains and Riverside elementary schools, the middle school and the high school.

Many of the mentors are retired, and some are teachers or administrators in the school district. Others, like Marie, are working members of the Oneonta community who want to give something back.

Bruce Harrison leaves his job at New York State Electric & Gas Corp. to mentor a Riverside fifth-grader. He's in his fourth year, lured back by the program's payoff: "The fulfilled feeling of having a unique relationship with a child who needs you."

Students and mentors can do an activity together — one retired teacher taught her student the basics of quilting — or just talk. Mentors are not tutors or counselors, but rather, "friendly adults" willing to provide one-on-one attention and an objective point of view.

"It is their special time," Harrison says, "and they can be open and honest because they're not being judged."

Potential mentors fill out job applications and submit references. Once approved, they attend a two- to three-hour training session and meet the coordinator at the school where they want to work. School counselors then match up students with mentors.

In a small room tucked behind bookshelves, Miki and Marie tell me that neither thought their relationship would last this long.

Miki was 14 when they met, and at first, it was awkward. "It was like, `Oh, God — there's an adult I have to talk to,'" she recalls.

But the two had "great chemistry," Marie says, and they began to look forward to their weekly meetings. Before long, Miki was bringing in bits of a screenplay she was writing, about a cheerleader whose life seems perfect on the outside, but, of course, is not. Marie would read each section and offer feedback.

"The fact that she liked it sort of propelled me forward," says Miki, who finished the screenplay and began writing a crime novel.

Guidelines of the program prohibited the two from meeting outside of school, but Marie saw Miki perform at school functions, including this year's musical, "Me and My Girl." Besides participating in Drama Club, Miki takes advanced courses, sings in the chorus and writes for Silhouette, the school literary magazine.

Looking back on the past four years, she says Marie's encouragement has made a difference in her life.

"I don't think I would have written the play and definitely not the novel," she said. "It would have been one of those things: `Oh it would be nice to someday...'"

Miki's relationship with Marie has had another, less-tangible effect.

"It sort of gave me some self-confidence," she confides.

"I didn't know that," says Marie, smiling and looking a little teary-eyed.

"When I was a freshman, I was this little bundle in the corner — and now I'm going to sing a solo next week," said Miki, referring to the annual Ice Cream Social, where students perform for their peers in the school cafeteria.

Next month, she'll graduate from high school, and Marie will be among the proud adults in the audience. But they won't say goodbye forever. The two women will keep in touch by e-mail when Miki begins her studies at Cazenovia College, where she plans to major in criminal justice.

Marie says she'll take a year or two off before beginning another mentoring relationship. In the meantime, she's reflecting on the rewards of the program.

"There are three young women in the world I wish I could have given birth to ... not to be sappy," she says, "but Miki's one of them."

To find out more about becoming a mentor, call Jeanne Shea at 433-8288.

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Lisa Miller is a freelance writer who lives in Oneonta. She can be reached at lisamiller44@hotmail.com.