The Mentor Program is a cooperative program between Frenship High School and Frenship elementary and middle schools. The goal of the Mentor Program is to place responsible, motivated, and caring high school students with students in the lower and middle grades who may need extra support and a positive role model. 

The mentors do many different things with their mentees. They might assist with academics, read with their mentees, play games, share lunch, or simply sit and talk, offering a listening ear to the students.

For the last 10 years, high school students in the Mentor Program have gone through various trainings in confidentiality, how to have positive and appropriate conversations with their students, active listening skills, cultural differences, child abuse, and safety. 

In preparation to meet the mentee, the high school students did the Collaboration Creature project in class. Each student is assigned a “part” of the creature to make. After everyone has completed their “parts” they must find others with all of the parts necessary to put a creature together (head, body, arms, legs, tail.) Once that group comes together, they must decide as a group how to assemble their creature and write a biography for it.  

Stacy Barnett, Frenship High School Human Services Teacher, stated this activity helps to build communication, teamwork and collaboration skills, which are important skills when working with their mentees.  

“This project helps to get my students engaged and communicating with each other which gives them great practice for engaging with their mentees,” said Barnett. “It reinforces the importance of teamwork and collaboration. Many times, groups of mentors and mentees may be doing activities together and this activity helps my students get comfortable working in groups.” 

This year, the mentor program has 95 students enrolled. Each mentor will be assigned to at least two mentees and will see them four times a week. Barnett matches the mentors and mentees based on applications filled out by the mentee's parents and information sheets from the mentors. She looks at interests, hobbies, sports, and activities, and tries to determine matches from that information. 

Barnett stated she is looking forward to seeing her students at the schools with their mentees and start making meaningful connections.  

“My favorite part of this job is connecting with my students, building relationships with them, and then watching them make connections with their mentees," said Barnett. "I love going on site visits and observing these amazing high school students as they create strong relationships with their sweet mentees.”