Peer Mentoring in New Jersey:

Peer Mentoring in New Jersey:

When teacher Brian Sloan created the Gentlemen's Club at Memorial High School eight years ago, he never dreamed it would have such a far-reaching impact. "It really is a ripple effect," he says of the same-gender peer mentoring approach that has swept through the Millville Public Schools in southern New Jersey, as well as to other CFES schools nationwide.

Sloan saw the Gentlemen's Club as a refuge of sorts for a group of struggling young males, mostly African Americans, who lacked positive role models in their lives and were at risk of falling prey to the destructive forces of gangs and drugs. Unmotivated and disruptive in class, many of these young men had been given up on by their teachers. But Sloan and fellow teacher Scot Hoover saw a glimmer of promise beneath the bold swagger and harsh bravado, and soon their twice-monthly discussion group evolved into weekly (and often more frequent) meetings, where the application of CFES practices and resources was intensive.

Identifying the need to foster a connection between these young men and education, Sloan and Hoover mentored the teens, helping them set goals around personal and academic issues, build early college awareness, and design and implement community service projects. Not only did these students make phenomenal strides in school, they also reached out to help others in the greater Millville area and in the CFES community nationwide overcome the challenges in their lives. Through their leadership and service, these once troubled young males, as Hoover puts it, "morphed from the group that used to drag down our school to the group that lifts us up."

In the fall of 2006, when MetLife Foundation awarded CFES a grant to develop and enhance peer mentoring, Memorial High and the other CFES schools in Millville were among the first to be targeted. The peer mentor training and other resources provided by the MetLife grant enabled the Gentlemen's Club to strengthen a promising mentoring initiative with Lakeside Middle School that paired Club members with eighth grade males with a similar profile.

Peer mentoring and other collaborative activities between the Gentlemen's Club mentors and their Lakeside mentees led to the creation of a club at the middle school under the direction of teacher Michael Coyle. Coyle explains that a year ago his boys were "apathetic, moody, the ones who would mouth off and not take school seriously."

Coyle's program motto is "Respect, Responsibility." He tells the boys, "Before you do anything, stop and think: Is it respectful? Is it responsible?"

Coyle admits that his students still have a ways to go, but his approach, coupled with the support and encouragement from their Gentlemen's Club mentors, has made a difference. "They have the tools to make better decisions. We push them a few degrees now and hope it makes a greater difference down the road."

As Lakeside’s Gentlemen’s Club grew in size and notoriety, a group of middle school girls lobbied for a club of their own. With teacher Nancy Pollard as their advocate, the girls launched Ladies by Choice in February 2007.

Like the Gentlemen's Club, Ladies by Choice includes a MetLife peer mentoring component that pairs older students with younger ones, with training and support from CFES. Pollard was thrilled with the early outcomes. "Scholars who had been getting C's on their report cards the previous year were now averaging A's," she recalls. What's more, the academic gains were motivating the young women in other ways. "They did not want to miss school. They felt good about themselves and felt that they really mattered. They wanted to be the first in their family to go to college and finish college. They wanted to mentor others who did not get the same chance that they were getting and make life better for others."

When a guidance counselor from nearby Silver Run Elementary visited Lakeside later that year, she was surprised, and impressed, by the transformation in Pollard’s students, many of whom had attended Silver Run. "The guidance counselor came to the school and met with the girls during a peer mentoring activity," Pollard explains. "She was motivated by what she saw. She commented on how much these girls have grown and wondered why her school wasn't doing something like this."

A few months later CFES Scholars from Lakeside and Memorial kicked off a gender-based peer mentoring program at Silver Run, applying the skills they had learned through CFES/MetLife. According to Sloan, "Several boys and girls attended this elementary school and gained a sense of pride and responsibility by speaking to the younger kids. They reflected on what it means to be responsible as they talked about their experiences and their roles as mentors."

He describes the Scholars' efforts as "crisis intervention," trying to keep the elementary students on a path to high school graduation and college and to prevent them from making the same mistakes the Scholars made. To help smooth the way, Sloan says, "the Scholars are giving the younger students the knowledge to help them succeed at Lakeside."

When the original members of Lakeside's Ladies by Choice entered their freshman year at Memorial, they missed the support and connections the group provided. The Gentlemen's Club and its MetLife peer mentoring component were well established at the high school, yet there was no similar program for female Scholars. Disappointed but determined, the freshmen Scholars, with support from Pollard, spearheaded a campaign to bring Ladies by Choice to Memorial. "We pushed until something came about," says Pollard. "It happened this past fall and has been effective."

High school teacher Kristie Chisholm believed that the girls "really needed something like this" and offered to serve as faculty leader for Memorial's Ladies by Choice. Her group targets "the borderline kids, the girls who have been overlooked" – girls like Quanyshia, an only child who would be the first in her family to attend college.

Like other sophomores in the group, Quanyshia mentors freshmen to help ease their transition to high school. "I have been where they are, so they understand it from me." Once a D student, Quanyshia now earns A's and B's and plans to study cosmetology or social work in college. "Everything has changed for me now," she says. "My teachers love it when they see me now. They light up."

Millville teachers are not only pleased with the changes they are seeing in targeted students, but they also are more optimistic about their students' chances for future success. "The Gentlemen's Club and Ladies by Choice have given teachers at all levels a sense of hope," says Patti Atkinson, literacy coach at Memorial and long-time CFES team leader. "Teachers know there is something out there to help our students...we can reach them before we lose them."

Quanyshia, Atkinson says, is just one example of how peer mentoring has made a difference. "Right when she could have been a dropout, she has turned the corner and has become a success."

With Ladies by Choice now firmly established at the high school, the program "has come full circle," according to Sloan. "This year's highlight is that the Ladies by Choice at Memorial will soon be at Millville Senior High."

Sloan has another reason to celebrate. Mookie Holland, one of the original members of the Gentlemen's Club who is now in college, is mentoring in the Club on Tuesdays. Mookie attends nearby Cumberland Community College, Millville's partner through CFES.

"His coming back is huge," Sloan says, "because he was so affected by the mentoring, and when the kids see that someone like themselves can go to college – and that they are actually doing it – it sends a powerful message."

Like ripples on water, the program has spread beyond what Sloan, Hoover, and other Millville educators would ever have thought possible. "We are seeing a huge payoff," Sloan says. "It was worth all the effort that went into starting it."

The MetLife Peer Mentoring Program is funded by MetLife Foundation. MetLife Foundation was founded in 1976 and supports programs that increase opportunities for young people to succeed, give students and teachers a voice in improving education, create connections between schools and communities, and strengthen relationships among parents, teachers, and students.

For more information about MetLife Foundation, please visit www.metlife.org.