When the Kick-Off mentoring program (KOM) was brought to Seaholm High School, the plan was to help incoming freshman assimilate to the high school lifestyle. Mentors would act as an experienced guide to the freshman, help them learn where their classes are, provide homework help, and act as an overall big brother or sister.
But this program is not turning out to be the big success that the mentors, and the Seaholm faculty, had hoped it would be.Over winter break, the mentors were encouraged to hang out with their freshman to talk about how their high school and their classes are going so far.
As shown on the KOM Facebook group page, there are many comments from frustrated mentors stating, “my freshman don’t respond to me,” or “they didn’t respond.”
Junior mentor Johnny Mullen knows what it’s like to be put off by his freshmen. Mullen, who was apprehensive about talking about the responses he was getting from his freshman mentees, has made multiple attempts to contact them. He has not received much effort in return.
“Well, I struggle to get a text back from them,” Mullen said. “A couple ‘hees’ and ‘hos’ here and there, but that’s about it.”
Still, Mullen expressed his desire to form a better relationship with his mentees.
“I wish [the relationship with my freshman] was a lot better,” Mullen said.
Junior mentor Elaina Brown sees situations like Mullen’s and thinks that the KOM program hasn’t been the biggest success.
“I think it’s a total fail,” Brown said. “No one is into it.”
Senior Mackenzie Moore said that, while she likes the mentoring program and being a part of it, the freshmen students aren’t benefiting from it like the mentors had hoped.
“I love the mentoring program,” Moore said. “But I don’t think it’s beneficial to the freshman because they’re not into it.”
But not everyone feels this way. KOM senior officer Rebecca Rosen thinks that the Seaholm newcomers are gaining a lot of knowledge from this program. While she doesn’t mentor any specific freshmen, she is devoted to the program and the students involved, trying to make it the best experience for everyone.
“I think that [the mentoring program is] only giving a positive outlook to the [freshman] students,” Rosen said. “The ones who have grasped onto the situation and the program have excelled and have a lot less confusion [in high school], and had an easier process assimilating into Seaholm.”
She understands the frustration many of the mentors are facing because of the inaction by their freshman, yet she sees only good things blossoming from the program.
“I think that a lot of mentors are frustrated because the freshmen don’t seem to be keeping up with them,” Rosen said. “But I also think that a lot of connections have been made with the mentors that have reached out to the freshman.”
KOM staff facilitator and counselor Rebecca Rossen said since it’s the program’s first year, there’s a lot of improvements needed.
“I think it’s going well for the first year,” Rossen said. “It’s never going to be perfect your first year, and sometimes it takes years to make [the program] as close to perfect as possible. We have a lot of growing to do, and a lot of revamping and tweaking to do. We’re in the process of working ahead towards next year. The premise is still going to be the same, but there are things we need to do to improve.”
Rossen is not worried about some of the students not replying to their mentors. She just looks forward to taking this year as a learning process and trying to make the program better.
“If we set [the program] up differently to where we foster the relationship and build relationships first between the mentors and the freshman, then maybe later in the year the freshman will naturally want to say ‘hey, you know what you’re doing. You’re my buddy, can I ask you a question?’ But to try to force that is inauthentic,” Rossen said.
One freshman student, that prefers to remain anonymous, agrees that the mentoring program did help with her transition into her high school career.
“[The mentoring program] was good in the beginning, because we walked around Seaholm and got used to the classes,” she said.
Rosen and Rossen agree that, while the mentoring program is still trying to work out it’s bumps, it will be taking place next year, and it’ll only get better.
