When senior Kaieden Williams walks the halls of Nooksack Valley High School he has a few new students he knows this school year. They’re all freshman.
Williams is one of 58 sophomores, juniors or seniors at NVHS who were accepted as student-to-student mentors in a program new this year to help connect freshman to others in the school and give them a place they can go to ask questions.
“I try to help out the freshman that I have and sometimes some of the other freshman if they need help,” Williams says. “I go through the stuff that was hard for me when I was first at the high school.”
The program officially organizes to have groups of three freshman meet with their mentor during Advisory time throughout the school year. But sometimes those connections happen much more frequently. “We work together in Advisory every other Tuesday, but we meet each other in the halls if they need help,” says Lalanie Slosson, a sophomore mentor. “They also have my socials and one of my students does text me and asks questions outside of school.”
Slosson says she has already seen improvement with her group in how they are able to navigate school, and she believes she’s been able to help in that. “My students are really kind and always open to other peoples’ ideas,” she says. “It has been going super well.”
Williams says one of his students came in quiet and doesn’t often talk to a variety of people, “but he finds it nice to talk to someone who is older and treats him like a person.”
Jeff Demorest, Nooksack Valley High School assistant principal, says the program started as a response to a survey where NVHS students believed there was a lack of kindness at the school. “We are targeting kindness as the theme,” he says. “We want this to impact kindness from student to student.”
Survey results consistently showed students wished others in the school were better able to relate to each other. Demorest says part of the issue is a lack of connection and a shortage of trust. He hopes creating more relationships within the school and across grades will build strong connections.
Mentor students either applied to the program or were nominated by a staff member. Sometimes that nomination spurred a student on to think about helping when they hadn’t before. “It kind of inspired them to take the job,” Demorest says.
Currently, the 58 mentor students each serve three freshman students. Williams hopes others in the school see the program and want to join, ensuring that more mentors can meet a growing demand of new students each year.
Slosson’s goal is for her students to be confident in who they are and to be okay being themselves. “Being a mentor is not about being a teacher but being by their side and being there for them no matter what,” she says. “Maybe we are not close, but they will know you are there for them. I hope to see them happy and confident. That is my goal, to make them happy and feel comfortable at Nooksack Valley High School.”
Additional settings for Safari Browser.
