UW-Whitewater at Work: Clinton Middle School Getting through school with a little help from your friends.
Released: November 29, 2004
When students have someone on campus connected to them personally, they are more likely to succeed academically.
That statement is the basis for UW-Whitewater's Peer Mentor Program for first-year students. It's also the model for a new program at Clinton Middle School.
About 30 Clinton Middle School eighth-graders attended a workshop on peer mentoring at UW-Whitewater this fall. A group of six college-aged mentors spent a day teaching the eighth-grade students the basics of being a good peer mentor.
The pressures of young students beginning a college career are basically the same as the pressure felt by kids much younger entering their middle school years, said Susan Read, a guidance counselor at the middle school. The Clinton program has eighth-graders serving as peer mentors to fifth grade classmates.
“The biggest question for the fifth-grade student is. 'Who am I?'” Read said. “One day someone is your friend and the next day they are not. Hormones are changing and virtually everyday, the student wonders if he or she fits in.”
Read said the peer mentor concept can be just as rewarding at the middle school level as it is for the college-aged student.
“This whole program is designed to let fifth-grade students know that someone cares,” Read said. “The mentor will help in making the fifth-grader feel less intimidated and to know that it is OK to ask for help. While life’s circumstances may be different for an eighth grader than they are for a college student, the concept is the same.”
The Clinton Middle School students spent the day at UW-Whitewater learning skills such as being good listeners, how to be empathetic, how to ask for help if needed, and how to be a good role model and friend to their fifth-grade mentee.
“I think you need to start early,” Read said. “The skills that they learn today will hopefully stay with them throughout their high school and college years.”
According to UW-Whitewater Peer Mentor Program Coordinator Kim Simes, the program has shown a high rate of success.
“This year we have 1,786 students assigned to a peer mentor,” Simes said. “We are hearing from the first-year students that their peer mentors have really helped build a foundation that has allowed them to start out their first college semester on the right foot.”
“In the two years of the program we have found is that when first-year students have somebody they feel connected to – who they can go to with their issues – they are more likely to be successful both academically and socially,” Simes said.
“This could be the start of something very special,” Simes said. “This is a great opportunity for college students to not only excel as student leaders, but to have an impact on the younger generation as well.”
- Tom Pattison ,pattisot@uww.edu
