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SALT LAKE CITY — Making the transition from middle to high school can be challenging. Now, Salt Lake's Northwest Middle School and West High School are teaming up to help bridge that gap.
Going from Northwest Middle to West High School, freshman Faysal Aden was worried about "losing friends, keeping grades up and staying who I am." So far, "I've made lots of new friends," says Aden.
Some of those friends are members of the West High School Student Mentor Society made up of kids who had some of the same fears as Aden going into high school. Sia Shahnabi is a West High senior and member of the Student Mentor Society. She says, "Freshman year can be really intimidating. Everyone is older than you. It's a brand new school and it's much bigger."
"Our main goal is that we want success and a better environment for these incoming freshmen," says Kai DeBirk a junior at West High School and member of the Student Mentor Society.
For student mentors, a positive environment is a place where students aren't tempted to join gangs, take drugs, or sluff off classes. Yessyca Rivera is a senior at West High and founding member of the Student Mentor Society. "Even my freshman year, I had the wrong type of people around me which were a bad influence and so my freshman year, I began to skip classes," says Rivera.
Rivera found her way and plans to go onto college after graduation from West High. However, other West High students stumble and choose not to complete high school. In 2014, the dropout rate at West High was 24 percent. That was 9 percent higher than the state average of 15 percent, according to the Utah State Office of Education.
Shahnabi says those figures were alarming but not totally surprising and that is why the Student Mentor Society was created. "We decided that if we could make an impact during their freshman year then maybe that could be the basis that they could build upon to be able to graduate by the time they're seniors," says Shahnabi.
West High freshman and Northwest Middle graduate Brandon Donoso really likes the connection with the student mentors. He says, "It's kind of like a brother and sister bond in a way. Yes, it's very helpful." Aden agrees, saying, "Honestly, it's a relief. I feel like the mentors are going to help me throughout my journey in high school."
It is a journey that began this summer when Aden, Donoso and other Northwest Middle School graduates went through the BRIDGES program. Northwest language arts teachers Denny Aldridge and Angie Algarin came up with the idea for the summer program. And Algarin explains the BRIDGES acronym, which is, "Building resilience, independence, determination, growth and educational scholarship."
We also see it as a metaphor of this bridge that they're not quite ready yet to be there all alone in high school and how can they keep connected.
–Angie Algarin, Northwest language arts teacher
"We designed the summer program to help them learn some of the skills we thought would help them be more successful," says Aldridge. Algarin adds, "We also see it as a metaphor of this bridge that they're not quite ready yet to be there all alone in high school and how can they keep connected."
West High freshman Leslie Ochoa went through the BRIDGES program and says, "We're going to be on our own and we have to be responsible." This summer, Ochoa and others were responsible for completing honors projects.
"I got the assignment and I decided I couldn't do it by myself and I needed a little bit more assistance, more guidance," says Donoso. And guidance navigating the challenges ahead.
After a year at West, Martina Martinez came back to Northwest with some advice for students in BRIDGES. "You have to have your friends and your schoolwork and you have to balance everything together," says Martinez.
After BRIDGES, these Northwest grads see a path across the bridge to high school.
Belle Ferro is a West High senior and a member of the Student Mentor Society. She believes a program like BRIDGES and high school mentors like herself would have helped in her transition into West. "It really was like reality punching me in the face coming to West. And I think I could have gotten on the wrong path. You know, meeting the wrong people and not getting enough help," says Ferro.
Aldridge feels like, "There's such a need for students to know that they can succeed and that they've got people behind them."
"In high school, it's freedom like it's on you. You're responsible for yourself, getting to class, turning in your assignments," says Alex Tinoco, a West High senior and member of the Student Mentor Society.
Aden and Donoso feel like they've already embraced some of these resposibilities. Both turned in honors English assignments and expect to earn good grades on the projects. Aden says, "So far this place (West High) has been great, school is treating me well."
Northwest graduates who participated in the BRIDGES program are also encouraged to text with their former teachers and to come back and get help from them when they need it.
