Dylan Woodruff is eager to meet the group of sixth-graders he’s been paired to support and mentor at Blendon Middle School this school year.
Woodruff, one of Blendon’s 40 eighth-grade student leaders in the Where Everybody Belongs (WEB) program, recalls how helpful his WEB leaders were when he first came to middle school.
“The WEB leaders were my inspiration and who I looked up to,” he said. “They said I would be perfect for it so I’ve been wanting to do this since sixth grade.”
The WEB program, a year-long transition program to welcome sixth-graders to middle school, typically kicks off with a school-wide assembly where WEB teams connect through a variety of activities. This year, the program is virtual where WEB leaders hosted live-streamed orientations with their assigned sixth-grade mentees Thursday and Friday — marking the first formal opportunity for students to connect since the remote start to school.
These WEB connections between students are critical, especially since they haven’t had many opportunities to socialize so far this year, said Amy Weinrich, counselor and WEB coordinator at Blendon.
“Teenagers really crave that social connection,” she said. “This is really a time for kids to put their school work aside for just an hour to engage and interact in fun activities to connect them with other students.”
The WEB program, which started at Blendon in 2017 before rolling out to the other middle schools the following year, hails from The Boomerang Project, a California-based educational consulting company that trains educators to facilitate peer mentorship at their schools using leadership and group development methodologies. The Westerville Education Challenge, which raises awareness and supports social-emotional learning initiatives in the district, provided funds to bring the WEB program to all middle schools.
Each middle school has WEB coordinators who have completed an intense three-day training to be certified to run the program in their building. The coordinators train the eighth-grade WEB leaders over the summer, who are then assigned to a small group (as many as a dozen) of sixth graders they'll be paired up with all school year.
WEB leaders provide support throughout the year, whether it’s giving campus tours to new students, tutoring those who are struggling academically or visiting classrooms to lead discussions on time management, teamwork and other life skills.
WEB coordinators had to adapt their program after the district moved to remote learning in the spring — when they typically recruit student leaders for the coming school year. Training for WEB leaders, normally in-person, shifted to virtual meetings.
To hype up the orientation meetings on Thursday and Friday, WEB leaders wrote a postcard for every sixth-grader. During the hour-long orientation meetings, which included students enrolled in Westerville Virtual Academy, the WEB leaders introduced themselves to their group of 10-12 sixth-graders and led them through games and ice-breaker activities to give everyone an opportunity to connect.
On the day before meeting his team of sixth-graders, Ryan Douglas, a WEB leader at Genoa Middle School, was excited and nervous. He repeatedly practiced how he wanted to introduce himself to his mentees. He listed his interests: singing, acting, soccer, math. But more than anything, he wanted to make it clear he was there to help.
“I chose to be a WEB leader because I want to give them an opportunity to talk to someone,” he said. “I want to be there for them.”
At Blendon, several WEB leaders recognize the role they play in setting the tone for sixth-graders and how it has given them a sense of purpose. They talked about staying positive amid the disruption COVID-19 has had on their school year.
“Being positive for them is showing us the positive side of everything too,” WEB leader Aubrielle Behary said.
“We can help them and understand what they are going through more than teachers because we’re also students,” WEB leader Pierce Minter said. “We have that connection.”