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I can’t believe I just got hot dog juice on my leather shoes. This thought ran through my mind as I frantically prepared 110 hot dogs for a hungry group of 60-70 teenagers. Surrounded by packs of hot dogs and hot dog buns in the school concession stand, I used four crockpots to heat the hot dogs en masse. We were having our end-of-the-year BBQ and field day for the students involved in our mentoring program and these dogs weren’t going to cook themselves.
We had made it through our pilot year and it felt good. We had some successes and bumps in the road, but I was excited to grow and refine the program for the next school year. As another student and I covered the tables with the classic red and white checkered plastic tablecloths, I reflected on everything we had accomplished. The connections. The laughs. The smiles. We had tasted success.
By the end of the year, there was a marked difference in our student leaders and their mentees. They mingled with one another during the BBQ in a way that wouldn’t have happened if they had not had the opportunity to get to know each other and refine their skills. Throughout the year, we strove to build respect, responsibility, and resilience in every single one of them. This BBQ and field day honored all they accomplished.
We would be able to help the kids who struggled post-pandemic. We would be able to help the kids who just didn’t feel connected. We would be able to help the kids who wanted to be leaders and just needed an opportunity to shine.
This week’s post details:
The good, the challenging, and the amazing of a student mentoring program.
How mentorship benefits students.
The five components of a mentor program.
By the end, you’ll have some tools in your toolbox so you can create a successful student mentor program and avoid some of the pitfalls we experienced.
Student Mentor Program Overview and Goals
Student mentorship is not new. In typical educator fashion, we cherry-picked this idea from another school. One day, a teacher explained to me how a local district had a mentor program where upperclassmen worked with freshmen once a month to ease the transition between middle school and high school.
I was intrigued.
I reached out to the assistant principal who led the program and he generously offered to have me visit. I always take an opportunity to check out something new and free. So I took a team of teachers with me to observe a session at the neighboring school. When we visited the gym, aux gym, and library, we were stunned.
The upperclassmen confidently led the freshmen through different team-building exercises that connected to one of the core values of respect, responsibility, and resilience. As I picked the brain of the assistant principal and instructional coach who helped organize and lead the program, I bubbled with excitement.
When we got back to our school, I rushed into my principal’s office and gushed about the possibilities….. We would be able to help the kids who struggled post-pandemic. We would be able to help the kids who just didn’t feel connected. We would be able to help the kids who wanted to be leaders and just needed an opportunity to shine.
My principal was on board with piloting the group. I immediately began laying the groundwork for the program and refined the materials the neighboring school provided.
We had five main goals for our student mentoring program:
Facilitate the freshman transition to high school.
Support students, the school, and the community.
Create and maintain connections.
Develop our upperclassmen into student leaders.
Provide opportunities for staff to connect with a broad range of students.
These goals were lofty. Did we meet all of them in our first year? No. But we kept trying.
The Benefits of a Student Mentor Program
After the pandemic, kids were struggling. They struggled academically, mentally, and socially. A student mentor program could help reconnect kids to school and each other. In fact, mentor programs can improve students’ self-esteem, their ability to bond with their peers, and their school attachment (Moody et al., 2003). These are all areas students generally struggle with, especially as they transition to high school, but after the pandemic, these struggles heightened.
To have successful mentor sessions, we knew that we needed to build the capacity of our upperclassmen who served as student leaders. We wanted a sundry collection of mentors who represented our student body and wanted to serve our mentees, service being a major part of leadership. We also wanted student leaders who were excellent role models because role modeling is one of the strongest teaching methods for a mentor program (Dickson et al., 2014).
Create a mission statement, clearly articulated goals, and/or core values to guide your work. Think of your why as the thread that binds your tapestry. Without a tight stitch, your tapestry will fall apart.
Our student leaders needed to personify respect, responsibility, and resilience, the core values of the program. If the student leaders embodied these qualities, then that could encourage the mentees to emulate that behavior (Bandura, 1977; Lindsay et al., 2016).
Mentorship is a completely social activity. Through social interactions, the individuals involved in a mentorship can grow their capacity (Arnesson & Albinsson, 2017), which was one of our goals. We knew that even though the 36 kids selected to be student leaders came to us with a strong set of skills, to lead and be a good mentor, they would need some training so that the program could be a success (Mahoney et al., 2002).
To do anything well and make a change will take work. But what you pour into a mentor program will pay off, I promise.
5 Essential Components of a Student Mentoring Program
Having the opportunity to see the mentor program in action at the neighboring school was key to getting buy-in. Another school opened their doors and let us take a peek at something incredible. I always say sharing is caring (I love you grumpy bear) which is why I am going to share with you the five essential components of a student mentoring program and some of the pitfalls we experienced.
1. Your Why
You’ve got to start with why whenever you’re bringing a group of individuals together. Create a mission statement, clearly articulated goals, and/or core values to guide your work. Think of your why as the thread that binds your tapestry. Without a tight stitch, your tapestry will fall apart.
The why for us centered on the core values of respect, responsibility, and resilience and the five goals I detailed above. Looking back, we should have narrowed our goals and perhaps merged the core values with the goals. Doing so could have tightened up the philosophy guiding the program. Regardless, the why will be the way!
2. Recruitment
To recruit the student leaders and mentees, you’ll want to have a few items:
Videos and posters to help market the program on social media or your learning management system.
A presentation opportunity to market the program.
Parent permission and/or notification.
Recommendation forms for teachers to complete to recommend student leaders.
Criteria to select both the student leaders and mentees.
Once you have these items in place you can start recruiting the mentees. When the mentees are whittled down, then you need to decide on the student leaders. I found it helpful to have at least two student leaders per group of 10 or so mentees and then some “floater” leaders who could help if a student was absent. Establishing a leadership or core group of 5-6 student leaders can also help with organizing and planning the sessions.
Finally, any program wouldn’t be complete without some teachers! This was an area of growth for our program. The vision was to have teachers meet with student leaders and coach them. Beyond one meeting at the start of the year, this didn’t happen. If I did this again, I would provide training to the teachers and structure their conversations so that the teachers were better equipped to take on this role.
The recruitment process is challenging for two reasons: 1) You want to make sure you aren’t leaving anyone out, and 2) Depending on the capacity of the program, you might need to leave some people out. This is why establishing a why and having clear criteria for the student leaders and mentees is so important.
3. Training
Think Rocky but scaled down. The student leaders need guidance and parameters to help them make the most of the mentorship. To help them get comfortable with their roles, we called in reinforcements. *sound the bugle*
We worked with the YMCA, our local intermediate unit, and a team-building organization to provide training to the student leaders. We frontloaded these activities at the beginning of the year as the student leaders spent an entire school day building their skills. Throughout the school year, we invited the YMCA representatives and some school leaders to speak to the kids about leadership and mentorship. These were awesome opportunities to tie together our student leaders with a community-based organization and district-level school leaders.
We took a risk on this program. We opened ourselves up. We tried something new. And we were not afraid of failure.
4. Program Sessions
Now for the meat and potatoes of the whole program..... the actual activities between the student leaders and the mentees. The basic structure of each meeting included: 1) a greeting, 2) the main activity, and 3) some closure. All activities connected with respect, responsibility and/or resilience. Some of the team-building activities were competitive. The kids were like little jumping beans when we had these competitions. It is amazing how candy, spirit gear, and bragging rights can get kids all jazzed up.
The toughest part of the activities was ensuring that kids would be there at every meeting. We had our meetings during a free period where students could go anywhere in the school. And I really can’t blame the mentees, who so desperately just want to be with their friends, for gravitating to unstructured areas rather than the sessions. Some students were consistent, but others not so much because of the pull to be with their friends. If I were to do it again, the sessions would occur at another time of the day.
The activities that were the most well-attended were the celebrations: our Friendsgiving and our BBQ and field day. I don’t know what it is about turkey and hot dogs, but kids love them both. These activities were also probably the most fun even though they took a ton of planning and work. For the Friendsgiving, I cooked and carved two turkeys at night…. never again!
5. Feedback
Finally, any solid program needs to incorporate feedback. The student leaders and mentees must have a voice and share what’s working and what’s not. Getting this feedback allowed us to pivot and capture more kids as we began adding a “bring a friend” to some of the sessions to help the mentees feel more comfortable. Whatever the feedback, it’s all about improvement and strengthening the program to impact the most kids.
One Last Thought
Implementing this mentor program took effort. And it wasn’t without a few bumps in the road. Anything worthwhile doing will take time and effort, but every single moment I poured into this program paid off because I could see students connecting with one another. Learning with one another. Laughing with one another. Connecting with one another. Having fun with one another.
We took a risk on this program. We opened ourselves up. We tried something new. And we were not afraid of failure. Because of that fearless, forward-thinking mindset, our students created memories that will endure.
Oh yeah, and my shoes turned out fine. I was able to wash out the hot dog juice. 🙂
Interested in learning more about the program? Don’t hesitate to reach out to me on Linkedin, X, or Instagram.
References
Arnesson, K., & Albinsson, G. (2017). Mentorship–a pedagogical method for integration of theory and practice in higher education. Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy, 3(3), 202-217.
Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological review, 84(2), 191.
Dickson, J., Kirkpatrick-Husk, K., Kendall, D., Longabaugh, J., Patel, A., & Scielzo, S. (2014). Untangling protégé self-reports of mentoring functions: Further meta-analytic understanding. Journal of Career Development, 41(4), 263-281.
Lindsay, S., R. Hartman, L., & Fellin, M. (2016). A systematic review of mentorship programs to facilitate transition to post-secondary education and employment for youth and young adults with disabilities. Disability and Rehabilitation, 38(14), 1329-1349.
Mahoney, J. L., Schweder, A. E., & Stattin, H. (2002). Structured after‐school activities as a moderator of depressed mood for adolescents with detached relations to their parents. Journal of Community Psychology, 30(1), 69-86.
Moody, K. A., Childs, J. C., & Sepples, S. B. (2003). Intervening with at-risk youth: Evaluation of the youth empowerment and support program. Pediatric Nursing, 29(4), 263-273.
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