Back-to-school time is always exciting, but it can also be a tough transition for students – especially students moving from middle to high school.
But at Chapel Hill High School, teachers and students have joined forces to help incoming freshmen make that transition a successful one.
They’re doing it through a program called TigerLinks – which pairs incoming first-year students up with juniors and seniors who serve as informal mentors throughout the year. Improving on an earlier mentoring program, TigerLinks launched last year and continues into year two this week.
The idea, say organizers, is to improve grades, reduce behavioral issues, and help shrink the everpresent achievement gap as well.
Teachers Tom Stanfa and Myles Aitken are in charge of the program, along with Randy Trumbower, William Melega, Veena Rajan, and assistant principal Anna Hipps. Nearly a hundred juniors and seniors serve in mentoring roles: the program pairs them up and assigns them to groups of 10-13 incoming freshmen.
Tom Stanfa and Myles Aitken joined Aaron Keck on WCHL last week, along with student mentors Jade Martens and Hanna Siekiersky.
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