The mentor program brings together positive role models from the community and students who can benefit from one-on-one attention. Anyone can become a mentor, including business leaders who want to help develop the future workforce, retirees who want to share their life experiences, and those who have time, talents, and patience to give.
SMS will implement a Check and Connect program during the 2020-2021 school year. This program will include students selected by teachers and school counselors. Parents sign a permission form for the student's participation in the program.
Students and mentors work together at the school site to improve grades, set goals for improved attendance and behavior, or to explore the student's career interests. Mentors participate in a two-hour training that reviews volunteer policies, school procedures and strategies to use with students.
Mentors help students develop self-confidence, academic competence, a caring attitude toward others, and reading skills that will help them be successful in school, so they can be successful in life.
For more information contact Emily Diggs, Student Success Coach, at [email protected] or by phone at 863-965-5494.
When Students Are Mentored They:
- Improve their attendance rate - 98%
- Have fewer discipline referrals - 33%
- State that they can now say 'No' to peer pressure - 78%
- Say their personal relations skills are improved - 72%
- Experience improved networking skills - 54%
- Feel more satisfied in their jobs - 67%