Crestwood offers a variety of mentoring opportunities for all students. Our three formal mentoring programs include the House Mentoring System, the Female Peer Mentorship Program and the Academic Mentorship Program. The House Mentor System offers some excellent opportunities to connect Senior and Junior students at the College by grouping all students with a teacher mentor. Several times throughout the year the mixed grade groups meet to participate in special activities and build the school community. The Female Peer Mentorship empowers girls and young women to believe in themselves and to help them reach their full potential by providing a mentoring relationship between younger and older students. Grade 11-12 female students are given a wonderful leadership opportunity while providing answers and reassurance to younger grade 7-8 female students. Our Academic Mentoring program helps students struggling with academic issues by pairing them off with a teacher and meeting on a regular basis.
The best mentoring occurs on an ad-hoc basis when a teacher approaches a student in need of extra support and encouragement or when a student seeks out a good word from someone he or she respects. Above and beyond our mentoring system, Crestwood has staff with the appropriate antennae and willingness to engage and assist children who need adult support. It is an ongoing conversation, and not the result of proscribed meetings. Our formal mentoring programs were put into place to assist students reluctant to approach anyone. These sessions merely provide opportunities for conversation, and do not have the same remedial impact or psychological benefit. As such, they are less productive. Parents whose children are shy and withdrawn are more likely to ask about mentoring programs.
As far as the benefits of mentoring as a whole are concerned, it addresses the necessary human connections that are absolutely imperative pre-requisites for any academic success. Once a kid feels loved and wanted, once a kid knows that teachers around him or her are more than just purveyors of information and marks, success of all colors and kind is imminent.
