About: The Adopt-A-Freshman program at Gateway Institute of Technology will pair freshmen with juniors and seniors, who will act as mentors and help them adjust to the high school environment.
Goal: To have upperclassmen help underclassmen become familiar with high school, by showing them around the school, helping them set goals, talking to them about their worries, and answering any questions that they might have.
How: Recruit juniors and seniors to be mentors, and train them on what it takes to be an effective mentor. The freshmen will get signed up when they come to the school for registration. We would like to offer some type of incentive for the mentors involved in Adopt-A-Freshman.
Meetings: The pairs would meet after school, and during this time we will have some type of group activities, team building exercises, and there would also be some one-on-one time for the pairs also. If possible, we will include gym time for the last 30min of each meeting. We will also make sure that they have lunch with eachother at least once a week.
Result: A more accepting and less intimidating environment for new students, freshmen grades will improve, and behavior problems will decrease.
Resources Needed:
- Adopt-A-Freshman will be working with hundreds of students, and it would help us out if we had a room of our own (like the Student Government Assoc.). This room would be used to store all of our papers and files, have small group meetings, one-on-one sessions, planning space, and much more.
- Plenty of printer or copy paper.
- Index Cards
- Folders
- Binders
- Markers
- Along with any other item that we could give away as incentives to our participants.
Evaluations: A-A-F Leadership will check in with the freshmen, to make sure that they are getting what they need from their mentors, and the school. We will collect Mentor/Mentee journals on Fridays to review them.
Journals: We have designed journals for the supervisors, mentors, and freshmen. These journals will have record sheets that the pairs will fill out, recording when they meet (time), where they meet (location), and what they did or discussed. Personal information does not have to be recorded in these journals.
Incentives: If the mentor can help their freshman keep a GPA of at least 3.0, then they will be invited to a pizza party, if they get a 3.5 then there will be a pizza party, and they will receive a gift card, and if they get a 4.0 or higher then they will get the pizza party, gift card, and enter a drawing for a cash prize. This will happen twice a year.
This program will definitely help Gateway Institute of Technology, and will hopefully be used at other schools in the future. Please support us by donating funds, or any of the supplies that are listed in the Resources Needed section.
Darion Robinson: Future Teacher, Principal, and Superintendent 