A community mentoring pilot program is having great success at Hamilton Heights High School. Teach One to Lead One® (T1L1) is a unique mentoring program between the school and local community mentors. These mentors meet with students during the school day, once per week, to lead them through an interactive curriculum. The program teaches 10 principles that are essential to life.
Two of the 13 community mentors gave an update to the Hamilton Heights School Board at its January meeting. Sara Colter and Clint Flanders spoke to the board about the vast difference they have seen in the students since the program launched in August.
Colter mentors a class of freshmen. She mentioned how transparent the students had been and how the T1L1 program had helped the students face their fears in a positive way.
Flanders meets each Thursday with a sophomore group. He talked about how they were beginning to see themselves as leaders.
To demonstrate the success of the program, one of the sophomores in the program, Sydney Buffum, shared with the board what she had learned from her mentors. She spoke about taking responsibility for her actions. She said she had come to realize that she was in control of her own choices in life. She said the mentors had helped her understand how to handle choices in a positive way.
Hamilton Heights High School Assistant Principal Whitney Gray shared her plans to double the number of T1L1 classes at the high school next year. She said they would be focused on freshmen. She had high praise for the program and the difference it has made with all the students involved.
The T1L1 mentors lead the students through 10 universal principles: Respect, integrity, self-control, courage, humility, excellence, compassion, enthusiasm, teamwork and honor. T1L1 guarantees four measurable, positive results from the mentoring program. Students will experience better attendance, better grades and better attitudes. Hamilton Heights is the first T1L1 mentoring program in Indiana.