Creating opportunities to build and foster new relationships, promote positive self-image, and encourage goals for the future is exactly what happens each month as women mentors from the community stop into Westerville middle schools for lunch, conversation, guest speakers, and creative inspiration through hands-on activities. This year, seventh and eighth grade girls in the Westerville City Schools MODEL Mentoring Program decided to create projects that would pay-it-forward in the communities around them.
Heritage students created large, inspirational quotes to hang over the stairwell as reminders to the student community to be kind, set goals, and dream big. Blendon students collaborated with My Very Own Blanket to provide knot-tied blankets with inspirational notes for children in foster care. Walnut Springs students became pen pals with Huber Ridge Elementary second grade children throughout the school year, culminating in an on-site visit.
“After four years of overseeing the MODEL program, we could not be happier with student growth in the areas of attendance, achievement, and social, emotional learning this opportunity has provided for our female students,” stated Cynthia DeVese, Coordinator of Minority Student Achievement. “Each year, the data shows the importance of such initiatives in our schools.”
For additional information regarding the MODEL Mentoring Program, please contact Cynthia DeVese, DeveseC@wcsoh.org or Tami Santa, SantaT@wcsoh.org.