MY PROJECT:
"Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it's not all mixed up." --A.A. Milne Each year, many of my older students serve as mentors to younger, at-risk students. They need a way to organize and mobilize their supplies in order to effectively assist their mentees.

I am a school counselor at a public, K-5 school in Tennessee. The students at my school are a diverse group culturally, ethnically, and economically. I work primarily with students in grades 3 through 5, providing classroom guidance and individual and small-group counseling services. As part of my school counseling program, I oversee three peer mentorship groups designed to help younger, at-risk students. My peer ambassadors assist students who are new to our school transition successfully into our school family, my peer mediators help students develop empathy as well as listening and problem-solving skills so they are better able to negotiate day-to-day conflicts, and my peer tutors help students who are struggling academically with their work. To encourage the students they help, my peer mentors make friendly greeting cards for their students, give them hand-decorated goodie bags filled with "cool stuff," and reinforce their students' successes with stickers, pencils, and bookmarks.

My office is too small a space in which to conduct the peer mentors' myriad duties. Indeed, peer ambassadors work throughout the school helping new students become familiar with the school layout and personnel, peer mediators hold their sessions in our science lab, and peer tutors work outside classrooms, up and down five school halls! I am requesting a mobile cart and storage boxes for use by my peer mentors. This will allow them to organize all their supplies (folders, pencils, bookmarks, goodie bags, stickers, etc.) and have them in one cabinet that can be easily moved around the school. I am requesting folders that will hold their training materials and where they can record their daily jobs (e.g., the student tutored, date, and material reviewed). I am requesting stickers that the peer mentors can use to reinforce the successes of the students with whom they are working. Finally, I am requesting lanyards to identify the peer mentors and certificates to recognize their efforts.

Students who are new to a school, who are struggling academically, or who have difficulty getting along with peers are all considered at-risk academically, socially, and behaviorally. Matching an at-risk student with a peer mentor is one way to mitigate his or her challenges. My peer ambassadors, tutors, and mediators learn responsibility while helping those in need. This project will help my peer mentors organize and mobilize their supplies so they can better help these struggling students. Show Less