“If I were to walk on here without a senior mentor, I would probably be lost,” Kristyn Lorek said.
The Senior Mentoring Program is a new program which involves seniors helping incoming freshmen by getting them adjusted to high school life. The seniors who went through summer training have benefits to the program as well. The summer training took place over two days in the summer and the third day was the orientation. The advisers at the summer training were teachers and students.
“During the first part of the day, it was SHOUT training, then we ate lunch and then we did Senior Mentor Training. The SHOUT training was basically going through the actual activities that they would be doing with the freshmen on the orientation day. The Senior Mentor portion went through the Senior Mentor Handbook which outlined expectations as well as the first several weeks of lesson plans,” creator Mrs. Jennifer Hanks said.
The advisers at the summer training were teachers and students who helped create this new program.
“For the SHOUT portion it was Mr. Feuerbach and a few of his ASB students who had attended a special conference. For Senior Mentor, it was myself along with three STARS students who had helped write the curriculum: Stephanie Purdy, Nicole Gorman, and Anna Keithler,” Hanks said.
Freshmen walk through the doors of their very first day of high school. They say “hi” to their friends they haven’t seen all summer and try to find their classes. They walk into the wrong class and sit down through the period to realize that it isn’t their class. When the bell rings, freshmen try not to get run over by the upperclassmen. This year freshman will not have to worry about finding the right classes or
“The benefit is getting to meet new people and help students. I would have liked someone to reach out and help me when I was a freshman because I was so lost and I know my freshman year would have really appreciated it,” Alicia McLean said.
Freshmen are allowed to hang out with their senior mentors at lunch if they choose. People now see freshmen and seniors walking around together more often than years past.
“It will be a program available for next year’s seniors, but for now it is only for the seniors in the program who went through the summer training,” Mr. Jon Bryant, a geography teacher, said.
The seniors who applied for the program had to have two teacher recommendations and were chosen by several different teachers and an administrator. The seniors had a lot to explain to the incoming freshman about high school. The seniors meet up with Mr. Feuerbach twice a month and meet with their groups in their geography classes and teach them about high school and the ways to become the best students possible.
“I showed them around campus and explained the routines and rules of the campus, and then we talk to them about their homework and essential skills, intervention, how to use their planner, checking their grades and staying organized,” McLean said.
While the program is helpful for freshman to become comfortable in the program it also develops friendsips.
“It’s nice getting to know the seniors because you can get a bond between them,” Lorek said.
By PAIGE SMITH
