As mentioned in my ‘About Me’ post on my introduction page I volunteered as a mentor to a special needs late elementary student through the Big Brother, Big Sister program during my last year of high school. While the experience was short it was a great education related extra curricular that I found to be very eye-opening. Personally, I barely remember being in fifth grade so having the opportunity to listen and talk with my “little brother” allowed me to reconnect with the things that students at that age are dealing with.
Another extra-curricular that I participated in for several years was the Pass It On Girls program. Pass It On Girls is a program where grade ten to twelve female identifying students were individually paired up with female identifying students in grade seven or eight. The intention of the program was for the mentors (the grade ten to twelves) to help their mentees transition into high school and support them through the strange time of becoming a teenager. The middle school aged members would come to Pass It On meetings once every month, whereas the older participants would meet weekly to discuss various topics and the ways in which we can best support our mentees. The program was not only a resource for the younger girls but was also extremely useful for the high schoolers, as it typically brought together young women who ran in different circles and allowed them the opportunity to connect in ways that they typically wouldn’t be able to in class.
If it is not clear in how I speak about the program, Pass It On was an extra-curricular that was a very positive experience for me and is a program that I hope to adapt and encourage in future schools that I teach in.
