Welcome to spring,

March has been an opportunity to share, connect and prepare for the remainder of the year. Our program was able to host a community event, mentors facilitated workshops and participated in classroom projects. Below are stories from the past two weeks.

Warmly,

Jennie & GEAR UP Team

---

The quote for this week to leave folks inspired is from the 2022 Near Peer Mentor Fall Reflection,

“Whenever I have an idea I’ll run it by [Partner Teacher], if he likes the idea he will help me figure out which class could benefit most from it and provides me a full period to do the workshop."

On Wednesday, March 8th, our program hosted our first Community Meaning Making where Jefferson, McDaniel and Franklin families, students and staff engaged in conversations about feedback students provided last semester in a survey about their classroom experience and college and career goals. The data featured responses from question, "What is the highest level of education your family....teachers...peers think of you?

The night was filled with fruitful conversations around what does data mean to folks, how to avoid data pitfalls and approaching data with curiosity and wonderment instead of judgement and making definitive statements.

The above image is an elephant that prompts folks to reflect that from every angle, people have their own perspective and instead of blaming and pointing people as being dishonest, we should work to understand each other's limited experiences. The moral of the parable is that humans have a tendency to claim absolute truth based on their limited, subjective experience as they ignore other people's limited, subjective experiences which may be equally true.The parable originated in the ancient Indian subcontinent, from where it has been widely diffused.

We are fortunate this term to begin partnership in extending the Near Peer Mentor program to Alliance at Meek, which is piloting the program this term. Alliance at Meek is the first alternative education that will be hosting mentors. We've hired two NPMs, Sophie Minnick (Alliance alum) and Alex French to join the team at Alliance. They will be joining hands with teachers Kyle Hunter and Ursula Loret de Mola.

We're excited to have them join the movement with us!

Mentor Song presented a College 101 presentation for his Avid class last Friday, March 3. His first workshop was a success, and he did excellent. He talked about the smaller class sizes, more affordable tuition, and flexible class schedules that he experienced as a college student. He discusses the types of colleges such as community colleges, four-year public/private universities, and for-profit universities, and the degrees they offer. His partner teacher joined in as well, sharing their experiences in college. Students took notes as Song was presenting and some had questions like what is a dorm or what is the difference between associate and bachelor? Song was prepared to respond to the students.

For winter term our program hosted a Shadowing Opportunity for mentors to shadow each other. Seven new mentors shadowed Lead Mentors from their 2nd to 5th year from Roosevelt and McDaniel. Of the eight mentors who were Lead Mentors, they were able to demonstrate their skills by serving as role models and sharing their own experiences to their peers. Mentors who did the shadowing described their initial experience as nervousness in following someone in a different school and neighborhood. On the other hand, the Lead Mentors express excitement and nervousness because no one has ever shadowed them before.

A common takeaway from both Lead Mentor and Shadow is that they gained new skills on how to interact better with students and collaborative teachers. However, it was also a challenge for Shadows to begin new conversations with students they had never interacted with before. However, they were eventually able to break out of their comfort zone and started to talk to students.

In April, the second round of shadowing will take place with Lead Mentors getting to shadow one another.

Here are some positive quotes from mentors during their debrief session.

“This is my first time visiting North Portland. The school and neighborhood were beautiful.”

“It went great. I was kind of nervous starting it because I've never had anyone shadow me. But it went super smooth and was great.”

“It was good to see how another mentor helps out in [their] class to take some ideas with me on how I can improve in my class.”

“I want to continue establishing connections with my students, helping them with their projects and feeling like they actually enjoy being in the classroom.”

“This shadowing experience went very well. I was able to observe the teacher to mentor corporations, the close peer mentoring with students, and the high communication of mentors to mentors.”

Here are some quotes from mentors on challenges.

“A challenge for me was talking to new students that I don’t see every day but I’m proud that I was able to talk with most of them.”

“One challenge for me in this case will be the knowledge of the classroom that students were learning. I have not participated in robot classes and wasn't able to further discuss more with students about their project that they were working on.”

In the fall, our program administered a survey to Partner Teachers and Near Peer Mentors in hopes to understand their experiences within the program and a reflection of their learning environment. Some key takeaways from the two reflections surveys are below. Our plan is to send out a spring reflection before the end of the school year.

Partner Teachers

• Positive Relationships: Increased student engagement with mentor presence and making classrooms more accessible
• Sharing college experience and ability to relate to students
• Presence of mentor in the classroom is felt both when they're present and when they're absent
• Challenges include inconsistency with attendance and initiation in classes

Near Peer Mentors

• Building connections and extended engagement with students
• Ability to have collaborative time with teachers to discuss classroom content and/or upcoming workshops
• Challenges include work schedules and uncertainty around when to step in the classes around assignments

• Partner Teachers: for being dedicated educators to your students and spending time collaborating with your near peer mentors. Several of you have spent time either debriefing the class, listening to mentor's ideas or incorporating their suggestions, thank you for the continued partnership. We look forward to seeing more great things from your relationship with your mentors.
• Near Peer Mentors: working a part time position and attending college can be a challenging feat especially when the work is HEART work. Please take care of yourself and spend spring break tending to things you enjoy and love.
• Program Staff: as staff who supports folks directly on the ground, we appreciate your focus and attention in taking care of those around you.
• Welcome back Jonathan! Jonathan Trapero is returning to us as a mentor and will be joining hands with the Jefferson team in the ELD classrooms.

Wednesday, March 22 - SAT Day

Friday, March 24 - GEAR UP Summit @ 8:30-2:30pm

Monday, March 27 - Eden's Birthday 🎂

Monday-Friday, March 27-31 - SPRING BREAK

Friday, April 7 - Ashley's Birthday 🎂

Monday, April 10 - Teacher Embedded PD Day

Tuesday, April 11 - Erick's Mental Health Workshop (periods 2nd & 3rd)

Friday, April 21 - Alondra's Birthday 🎂

Friday, April 28 - Sam's Birthday 🎂

All Mentors

NPM Public Folder 2022-23

NPM Policy & Procedure Manual

***General Resources***

• GEAR UP Near Peer Mentor Program Evaluation 2021-22 Report
• Avoiding Racial Equity Detours
• The Literature: Expectation of Self
• Essential Understanding of Native Americans in Oregon

--

Picture Credits:

1. Elephant (Jason Hunt)
2. Image from Community Meaning Making #1 (JJ)
3. Image from Community Meaning Making #2 (JJ)
4. Image from Community Meaning Making #3 (JJ)
5. Image from Community Meaning Making #4 (JJ)
6. Mentor Song facilitating a workshop (MFP)
7. Video of students participating in icebreaker (MFP)
8. Image of two sticky figures in blue walking (CivicServiceLegal)

Jennie Cha (she/her)

Program Supervisor | PPS | HS Academics

Monday Office Hours 1-2pm: meeting link

Thursday Office Hours 11-12pm: meeting link

AmeriCorps Members

• Simone Frison | sifrison@pps.net
• Maria Felix-Pedro | mafelixpedro@pps.net

Email: jcha@pps.net
Website: https://www.pps.net/Page/14862
Location: 501 North Dixon Street, Portland, OR, USA
Phone: 9716789577
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009266612916
Twitter: @gearuppps