It's the PALS Press!

Dear PALS Family,

October is the month when everything takes off. Our PALS have been trained and are ready to mentor. Our high school PALS have come together for a fantastic day of learning and practice. We have reconnected with PALS partners around Austin and Austin ISD for another year of collaboration. We have even connected with some fantastic students from UT who will be mentoring at our high schools. It's a busy time!

Yesterday, I found myself meeting with the fantastic Oak Springs Dolphin PALS to facilitate the first part of True Colors training. It was a joy to spend time with Ms. Ana Lee and her funny, kind students. All over the city, elementary PALS are bubbling, just about ready to begin to build relationships with younger students on their campus. If you would like a little additional training, or for me to come lead an activity or two, please let me know. I am always happy to come to your campus and begin work with your team.

Our elementary training is scheduled for January 9th. This is right after we return from winter break, so it will make sense to start to do bus requests and create field trip lists now. The training will be held at the AISD Performing Arts Center, just like old times. We love the excitement of having all of our students come together to learn about each other and the work happening at other campuses. And, of course, for our counselors to make connections outside their vertical teams and to share PALS know-how.

Finally, last night was our second PALS teacher social hour of the school year. It was so much fun to get together with high school PALS teachers from Navarro, Anderson, and Ann Richards, and to visit with our dear friend Monica Flores, who is now an AP at Webb Middle School. We'll keep you posted on the next gathering. It's the closest we can get to a department meeting, and it's a lot more fun!

Until then, happy reading.

All the best,

Stacia

Dates to remember:

10/31 - Halloween

11/1 - Diwali (No School)

11/2 - SAT

11/5 - Election Day (No School)

11/25-29 - Fall Break

Our first fall high school PALS training since 2019 happened on October 15th, and IT FELT GREAT. We were all so happy to come together with students from all over the city. Programs big, small, new, established, and busy with all different kinds of service and mentoring models had a chance to connect, and our teachers had rare opportunity to gather during the school day to compare notes and share resources.

Old and new friends came to help facilitate our breakout sessions, too. We were honored to have Pam Martin, Director of Elementary Counseling and longtime PALS counselor and advocate lead our PALS in a session where they learned about the cognitive landscape and appropriate activities for younger students. Kaysie Fernandez and Liana Young of MTSS facilitated a session offering students a glimpse at state-dependent functioning and strategies to help a mentee become more calm or more engaged, depending on how they're feeling. Kat Kelley, Coordinator for Student Agency and Engagement and legendary Austin High PALS teacher emeritus, helped our students identify the values they seek to embody as PALS and create activities and projects that align with those values. Our dear friends Lorenza Phillips and Linda Aldrich helped students to find ways to build relationships with intention and integrity using low ropes activities, games, and meaningful discussion. We are so grateful to these facilitators and to our PALS teachers for making the day a success.

We were thrilled to see friends like Statia Paschel, Director SEL Cultural Proficiency & Inclusiveness, Jane Ross, Executive Director of Student Engagement and Enrollment, a bunch of UT PALS, and folks from other organizations like Travis Marcum of Austin Classical Guitar. Truly, it was a beautiful event--just the kind of thing that makes me love my work so very much.

UT PALS officers meet with their PALS recruits to learn about mentoring best practices.

Some fantastic former PALS, Adelaide Escott and Emma Mattson, are rounding up service-minded Longhorns to mentor at AISD high schools this year. YouthLaunch is providing training and resources to make sure students in the UT PALS Student Organization are prepared to mentor, background checked, and connected to supports to help them do their best for their mentees. It has been an honor and a pleasure to get to know these bright, hardworking student leaders and to see how they have built engagement and dedication among first time and returning PALS around the 40 Acres.

UT PALS will begin their mentoring pilot at McCallum this fall with more high schools in line to receive them as the year ticks along. If you have questions about their program or would like them to visit your school, please reach out to palsutaustin@gmail.com.

We are excited to support these campuses with their PALS programs this year:

Akins

Anderson

Andrews

Ann Richards

Austin

Bailey

Baldwin

Barrington

Barton Hills

Bear Creek

Blanton

Boone

Bowie

Brentwood

Casey

Clayton

Covington

Crockett

Cunningham

Doss

Galindo

Garza

Gorzycki

Graham

Harris

Hart

Highland Park

Hill

Houston

Jordan

Joslin

Kocurek

Langford

LASA

LBJ

Lee

Linder

Maplewood

Mathews

McCallum

Menchaca

Mills

Navarro

Norman-Sims

Northeast

Oak Springs

Overton

Padron

Patton

Pickle

Pleasant Hill

Rodriguez

Sadler Means

Sanchez

Small

St. Elmo

Summitt

Travis

Walnut Creek

Widen

Williams

Wooldridge

Remember to share good news when you have it. The PALS Press is all about you! Send pictures, thoughts, and updates to sbowley@youthlaunch.org. :)

PALS is a cross-age peer mentoring program founded at Crockett High School in Austin, Texas in 1980. PALS support K-12 students at all levels of their education, and are at work at campuses across Austin ISD.

Email: sbowley@youthlaunch.org
Website: austinisd.org/pals
Location: 4000 South Interstate 35 Frontage Road, Austin, TX, USA
Phone: 9176931344
Facebook: facebook.com/AISDPALS