Vice Principal Salvatore Vollero is planning to implement a peer-mentorship program at East Haven High School in the near future, meant to support students struggling to adjust to high school. Vollero said, “It’s called SPSS, and it’s a program set up to support students who may be having challenges socially, emotionally, or with their academic grades.”
The plan is that upcoming freshmen will be paired up with a trained upperclassman who will guide them during school hours, and help them deal with the struggles of being a high school student. Mentors will be older students who show a connection to and are involved in the EHHS community, know how to connect with teachers and their peers, have good grades, and who have maybe had struggles of their own that they were able to overcome and can use those experiences to help others.
Student mentors will be paired up with a student by an array of different people such as social workers, psychologists, and teachers. The pairing process will be a thorough one that takes into consideration each student’s unique situation, and get them matched up with someone who will be suitable in supporting their specific needs.
Not only is peer-mentoring supposed to be beneficial for the students being mentored, but it is also supposed to be beneficial for the mentors themselves. Mentoring will count as a community service, and student mentors can gain community service hours for their helpful contributions. Students who were mentored will also have the opportunity to eventually become mentors too if they show improvement.
This program is definitely something to look forward to, and if it proves to be successful, can make an amazing impact on the student environment at EHHS. Having someone to go to when you need help, for both academic and emotional reasons, has been scientifically shown to boost students’ morale, academic performance, and attendance, and students are more likely to want to take advice from people around their age rather than adults who they can’t fully relate to.
This program is still in development and is not yet completed, but it is going to be in the works soon and test-runned in upcoming school years to see if it will have a positive impact on student academic performance and social-emotional well being.
