Kaua’i High School made history this past Wednesday, Sept. 1, when it hosted the first session of a brand new student mentoring program. Formally titled T.E.A.M. (Together Everyone Achieves More) Student Mentoring Project, the 4-H pilot program provides “Big Brother
Kaua’i High School made history this past Wednesday, Sept. 1, when it hosted the first session of a brand new student mentoring program.
Formally titled T.E.A.M. (Together Everyone Achieves More) Student Mentoring Project, the 4-H pilot program provides “Big Brother and Big Sister”-type relationships between the freshmen and upperclassmen in order to help the newest members of the Kaua’i High School roster make a smooth transition into high school.
Of course everyone who has ventured into high school has felt, at one time or another, anxious about making the supposed best four years of their adolescence commendable. As the youngest bunch on campus, it is easy to be intimidated by the older and well-adjusted students who seem to rule the school, which is why having seasoned veterans guiding you through the initial process is entirely gratifying.
Four teams of about a half a dozen freshmen mentees, each led by two senior or junior mentors spent the better part of their long lunch period getting to know each other through informal conversation. To gain a better perspective of what specific aspects of high school the freshmen needed help in, a voting took place. During this time, the mentors observed the basic interest areas and answered any pending questions. Just as everyone was beginning to participate in the discussion, the bell rang, signaling the end of the first session. As the freshman trudged to their third period class (obviously feeling deprived of their time with their new found friends) the mentors agreed to meet again in a couple of days for an evaluation meeting.
Destiny Magallanes, a freshman was thrilled with the first session of the program. “It was a lot of fun, but I was under the impression that there would be more people. I liked learning about the basic aspects of high school and I applaud the mentors for being well-organized and making the first session enjoyable.”
While the first session of the program was progressive as possible, there were a few unforeseen kinks and problems which made themselves present, such as having to talk over the racquet being made by others while the meeting was in progress, not having a couple of the mentees show up, and a list of other things which needed to be assessed.
Unforeseen problems are to be expected of course, during the inception of a new program, such as T.E.A.M., but they are what eventually fortifies and refines a program.
Although Sept. 1, 2004 was the actual starting date of the T.E.A.M. Student Mentoring Project, it initially began as an idea nearly two years ago.
According to Laura Kawamura, adult advisor of the program, the idea for the program was brought up during a community meeting.
“We (4-H) invited members of the community, people from the schools, adults, parents, and kids of low-income housing and various backgrounds to look at what they wanted for Kaua’i’s youth. During the meeting, the need for a mentoring program stood out among other issues.”
Taking the urgency for a mentoring program into consideration, the T.E.A.M. Student Mentoring Pilot Program was developed over the course of two years, in which 4-H members attended certain conventions, such as one on 0’ahu in Jan. 2003. “We gathered information about the mentoring process and developed a sense of what was needed to be done to get the pilot program up and running,” said Kawamura.
As far as we know, Kaua’i High School is the first school in the state of Hawai’i to create a community-based, in-depth student mentoring program such as T.E.A.M.,” said Kawamura. “While most mentoring programs are adult-driven, this program is run by the upperclassmen, with an adult advisor. The students are in charge of deciding what specific topics to cover for the freshmen and how to go about doing them.” Accomplished senior and Kaua’i High School Student Body President, Kelcie Kawamura is the head of the program.
During the beginning of last school year, word of the student mentoring program at Kaua’i High School began circulating, but unfortunately, nothing happened, leaving students curious as to why it never started. “Kaua’i High School was very interested in partaking in the program, but somehow it just fell through.” admitted Kawamura.
Despite the disappointing turn of events a few months earlier, towards the ending of last school year, applications for mentors and mentees were passed out at both Kaua’i High School and Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School. “Besides trying to recruit incoming freshmen at CKMS, we also recruited them throughout the summer, at summer school and at Kaua’i High School’s registration,” notes Kawamura.
During the summer, the mentors even went through a brief training to prepare them for their role as a mentor.
Armed with the knowledge and their orange binders to help them keep track of their mentees and the planned activities, they were ready to assume their duties.
While the application for the mentees boasted that the program would accept the first 100 students to turn in their applications, Kawamura acknowledges that they were being a bit over ambitious.
“We realize now that taking a 100 students for a pilot program would have been a huge task and was not the best idea. However, we are thrilled with our present turn out, it’s the perfect size for a pilot program. It gives us room to be more personal with each participant and be in tune to their individual needs, which is crucial to their success as well as the success of the program.”
The program will continue throughout the first quarter of the school year, which ends on Friday, Oct. 29.
During the first quarter, the mentors and the mentees will meet up at least once a week during lunch, where they will get advice and meet school officials who will help them to join sports, clubs, and other programs that they are interested in.
There will also be fun and creative activities which will enable both the mentors and mentees to build relationships and create lasting memories.
“By the end of the first quarter, we believe that the freshmen should already be well-adjusted and comfortable in their surroundings, but we will send a couple of surveys to the mentees throughout their freshman year to check up on them and see how they are doing,” said Kawamura.
“The entire program is a trial-and-error process. There are many good points about it and things that we need to change, but as we go along we hope to eliminate and add to whatever we can.
Our goal for the program itself is that it will continue annually through word-of-mouth and creating packages containing training materials, that we will be able to give to other high schools if they are interested in participating in a mentoring program.”
