For the past six years, FHS has offered the Family and Community Services (Mentor 1) and Counseling and Mental Health (Mentor 2) to junior and senior students. These classes work in sync with each Frenship elementary school and middle school with the goal of placing responsible and caring high school students with students in the lower and middle grades who need extra support or a positive role model.
In the spring of each school year, students are interviewed for a spot in the two courses for the upcoming school year. These interviews determine that students responsibility level and ensure they are capable of being an effective mentor.
Stacy Barnett, Family and Consumer Sciences teacher at FHS, has been the spear head of the mentor program for the past five years. She said during the more than 100 interviews she does each spring, she is looking for students that can handle their normal class schedules, as well as being a mentor.
“I have a whole set of questions that we go through,” Barnett said. “They have to fill out an application and get teacher recommendations. I send each of those teachers a form to fill out about those kids, because I have to make sure I have students in here that are trustworthy, and that are here for the right reasons.”
Barnett said the beginning of the school year begins with training for her Mentor 1 classes and reinforcement for her Mentor 2 classes.
“The first two months of school, until the end of October, we go over listening skills, how to pick up on certain issues, how to handle certain issues, and basically how to talk to people and how to get people to talk to you,” Barnett said. “I really want them to utilize their active listening skills.”
Barnett said after the training, usually at the beginning of November, her students still have class and learn on Monday and Tuesday, but on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, during her class time, her students go out to each elementary and middle school campus to be with their mentee.
“This class helps students to set themselves aside and focus on someone who isn’t their friend, who isn’t their family, and that have needs that they can try to help meet,” Barnett said. “It is awesome to see how they grow, and to watch them start to think of other people first. This class is designed to help the mentees, but the mentors always take so much away from it personally. It is just so great to see the kids grow and essentially act like adults.”
Donna Short, counselor at Legacy Elementary, said the kids light up when they see their mentors. She said the students are always asking “when are the mentors coming?”
“They enjoy it, they talk and get to know each other and hang out,” Short said. “This year I have noticed that the kiddos really like the Football player mentors, these kids aspire to be that when they grow up, and it is really special to see how excited they get.”
Short said teachers recommend who they think will benefit from having an older kid come in and be a positive role-model for them. She said she communicates that information to Mrs. Barnett at FHS, to get the student on the list.
“I think the kiddos are encouraged,” Short said. “They are given that ability to hang out and relax, to not have to perform for an adult and just be themselves. I think it just provides them the chance to talk and to know that they aren’t alone.”
Brooklynn Palmer is a senior Mentor 2 student. She was part of the Mentor 1 program last year and is now mentoring for the second year.
Palmer said her love for kids was a big part of why she joined the mentor program classes. She said getting to know the kids and be a “big kid friend” is super important to her.
“I think what I have learned is that not all kids have it easy,” Palmer said. “Getting to help them is so fun and makes my heart so happy. Seeing my mentees go from so shy to so bubbly and happy, outgoing, and talkative, is just so special. It’s so awesome to watch them grow.”