High school mentoring program launched in Bellingham
KIRA M. COX - THE BELLINGHAM HERALD BELLINGHAM - Kristina Blake knows first-hand the importance of finishing high school. She dropped out of Bellingham High School three months before graduating because she "didn't value or appreciate education" and just wanted to make money. After working low-paying jobs for a couple of years, she decided she needed to go back to school in order to be successful and get the kind of job she valued. Now, the 24-year-old is helping teens avoid the same mistake she did. Blake is a mentor with a new high school mentorship program called SEE YOU IN SCHOOL!
SEE YOU IN SCHOOL! targets high school students, mostly freshmen, who are struggling academically. The students are paired with an adult mentor who serves as a role model, provides a mature viewpoint, and helps guide the students to a successful path through school.
"Failure to thrive academically ... is one of the greatest indicators a student will drop out. Who wants to say in school if they're unsuccessful?" said Dennis D'Amelio, director of Communities in Schools. "It's our belief, and it's documented widely, that if a kid is doing better in school, they are less likely to drop out."
This is the first year of the program, but it builds on teacher-student mentoring work begun at Sehome High School last school year. The program, which is currently only in Bellingham schools, requires the student and mentor to meet once a week for an hour.
About 16 matches have been made at Options and Sehome high schools this year, D'Amelio said.
Blake is now a Whatcom Community College student on track to graduate this spring and transfer to Washington State University. She said she joined the program because she can "definitely relate to some of the students."
"A lot of young people are maybe in the same situation," she said. "They're at that time in their lives when they're over school, they're done with it, and they want to go out and make money."
"It's not until you realize when you're in that situation that you're only going to get so far," she said.
Blake and the student she is mentoring, a junior at Options High School, have been meeting for about a month and things are "going really well." Blake said she's been stressing the importance of finishing school in order to find a good career.
"If I would have had somebody that was ambitious and really they're telling me, 'Hey, stay in school, this is why you need to stay in school,' maybe I would have finished," Blake said. "It's really important to me to give back ... and prevent another student from dropping out and giving up on school."
