Something that LHS takes pride in is the tight-knit communities they make within clubs and organizations. Making one on one connections with different groups of people has been the key to creating these communities around school and around town.
One of the newest, biggest examples is the peer mentoring program for middle schoolers. It all started around six years ago when reading teacher Amy Downing and the Athletic Leadership Council visited the middle school to do an anti-vaping presentation.
“Over the years, [the program] has grown from a once a year visit with the high schoolers to a monthly visit with approximately 30 student athletes from the middle school,” Downing said. “The topics [that are talked about] are broader and more directly related to being a leader and role model in your school.”
In order to get this program running, many people and lots of meetings were involved.
“We had representatives from ALC and myself meet with Mrs. Lee and Mr. Leonard from the middle school who organize it on that end,” Downing said. “We discussed logistics and needs from their perspective. For our monthly meetings, we plan and brainstorm and sometimes ALC will break up into smaller groups and meet [during] their free periods because there is never enough time in meetings. A lot of them are also mentors in the Project M [club] here at LHS so there is a lot of crossover and they can use what they have learned here and apply it there.”
The activities the high schoolers do with the middle schoolers aren’t just about leadership though, they also work on building relationships and bonding with the kids.
“We only have a half an hour when we can get together- their Storm Time, which overlaps with our H period,” Downing said. “We try to have a topic related to leadership each time and a fun team building game as well. Our last fun activity was Family Feud, which was also a cooperative game.”
Downing and all of the other advisers have loved seeing this program grow over the years.
“By far the best part is seeing the middle school students come to the high school and become part of our community and give back in a variety of ways,” Downing said. “Several of the middle school students we worked with years ago are now part of ALC which is very, very cool. I also love to see the relationships that are built between the high school and middle school student athletes.”
One student mentor that takes pride in being a part of this program, is senior Kate Sloper.
“My favorite part about mentoring is being able to bridge the gap between the middle school and high school community,” Sloper said. “I’m lucky enough to be allowed to help these young kids navigate what it [means] to be a Lancer.”
