A team representing Lexington-Richland School District 5 presented the District’s enhanced mentoring programs to the Optimist Club of St. Andrews-Irmo on October 25.
For many years, District 5 has sponsored a program of mentoring individual students. Those students are normally identified and recommended by their teachers and guidance counselors.
In the past, the process has consisted of accepting volunteer mentors and giving each one an orientation outlining the rules of conduct and the goals of the program. They have met with their mentees for roughly an hour at a time on school grounds where they become paired for the school year. It is not unusual for the mentor/mentee relationship to extend beyond one school year, however.
That program has adopted an acronym to give the process an identity: S.A.N.D.S. stands for Supporting, Advising, Nurturing D5 Students. During that one-on-one weekly interaction, mentees can receive homework help, have lunch with their mentors, discuss life in general, and come to the realization that the mentor truly cares for them and seeks the best outcomes.
District 5 announced in February that it is growing its mentoring program to include two additional opportunities, those being Community Mentoring and Peer Mentoring.
During Community Mentoring, students are exposed to such topics as:
How to function in public situations
Establishing daily/weekly routines
Readying students for future community life
The vehicles for getting those life lessons instilled can include lectures from career experts, field trips, and group meetings where life experiences can be aired out.
Community Mentoring can be a positive influence for homeless students or those living in Foster households. It has been a key finding of the program those students often rely disproportionately on electronic media because they are alone so much of the time. The community approach normalizes interaction with others rather than existing in solitude.
Peer Mentoring pairs fifth graders with high school mentors; i.e., students closer to the mentees’ ages; who model normal behavior and assist mentees with everyday events and conflict situations. Those peer mentors are coached by their supervisors to be alert to shyness issues. Bear in mind those high school mentors actually seek out the assignment.
The three-aspect mentoring effort is supported and advised by Master-degreed social workers at each school.
The backbone of any of these programs is volunteerism. The weekly meeting with the mentee by a dedicated mentor is still the bedrock on which the new approach is built. For readers who are interested in involvement, Job One is to be a mentor. It means a weekly commitment to meet with the mentee and with the bonus relationship that grows from it.
Pictured left to right are Optimist Club President Gary Boyd and the District 5 mentoring team of Jennifer Felkel, Sabell Willis-Faust, LaTarsa Williams, and Elizabeth Balog, who is an Optimist Club member.
