At the beginning of this year, I was restarting the mentoring program. Most of the mentors came back to Scenic Hill this year to mentor the same student. Therefore, I was able to hear stories about many of the students from the past few years. One particular student had been mentored for about a year and would continue with her mentor this upcoming year. She had a tough background and hard life. Growing up with many different stepfathers and in an unstable household, she took her stress out by stealing things when she was younger and misbehaving in school. However, over the course of this year, she began to grow into a mature young woman. Although sometimes she would breakdown in tears about her past, she became a student who rarely misbehaved in class and who led her peers to do the right things. But her biggest success was facing a big fear when she spoke about her mentor relationship in front of 100s of people at the Communities In Schools breakfast. It really was her mentor relationship that helped her move past her fear of life.
Submitted by Jessica Cohen, Scenic Hill Elementary Site Coordinator