Eagle Edition
Enfield High School /Enrico Fermi High School Community Newsletter
Students Helping Students
January, 2016
Quarter 2
By Kathleen Bridges
As the faculty and students were preparing for winter break there were a group of students who met to receive training
on becoming Enfield High's New Peer Mentors. Upper classmen, who demonstrated the necessary qualities to be a Peer
Mentor, received specialized training on December 22nd. The hope is that these Peer
mentors can serve as an effective front line in the student development and academic
success of first-year students. The mentor’s main purpose is to guide and support the
mentee in many areas of his/her academic, social, and emotional development. A peer
mentor is in the unique position of knowing almost exactly what the mentee is facing—
they’ve recently been through most of the same experiences themselves.
The staff members who provided the training were amazed at the reaction they received from students willing to volunteer their time to help guide and support incoming freshmen. Eleventh-grader, Sean Pelletier expressed his reason for becoming a Peer
Mentor. “I’ve faced a lot of difficult times and through my experience I hope to help others cope with their challenges
and help them not make the same mistakes I made.”
The impact of our student-to-student mentorships will be tremendously beneficial to both the mentors and mentees.
These relationships further strengthen the social and moral fabric of our high school community. Excited about the upcoming year, Mrs. Nelson emphasized, “I would not have been able to start this program without the support of my colleagues, Mrs. Kathleen Bridges and Ms. Colleen Perry, who have assisted in the development, training, and supervision
of this program.” This program has also received additional support from Mrs. Judy
Joslin, Mr. Christopher Colburn, Dr. Elizabeth Plavcan and Ms. Erin Clark.
Enfield High's peer mentoring program was designed to enhance the connectedness
between the freshman student and the Raider community as a whole. The peer mentors
are utilized by providing leadership for the school community. The peer mentors will
assist the freshman student by mentoring and listening on a weekly basis. Moreover,
the peer mentor will keep a daily log of activities and meetings, which is reviewed by the
coordinators.