A new mentoring program within the Knoxville Community School District is seeing early success. 

This mentoring program, which is still in its infancy, is where a high school student in Knoxville is matched with a middle school student based on similar interests. The high school student meets with the middle school student by taking them out for lunch or just hanging out with them to be a positive influence. Angela Nelson and Trenton Kiefer, who got this program off the ground, say that it is a way for the middle school student to have a positive role model to hang out with, but also, the high school students can take pride in being able to be a mentor. 

The mentor program has received generous donations from Todd Chambers with McKay Group, Jim Baker with Leighton State Bank, and Jim Butler with KNIA/KRLS radio to help pay for gift cards to local businesses that the high school student can use to take the middle school student out for lunch. As the mentor program continues to expand, they hope to continue to see community support to make it possible. Nelson, who is the Student Services Coordinator at the high school says she loves seeing students take pride in the mentorship.

“My vision for this is that I would love to be able to see our high school kids coming to me and say I want to be a mentor knowing about the program, and just taking some pride in that. I do have a student now that I never thought would be a mentor. He struggled a bit in middle school himself. He has just really grown and matured, and to see him come over and be excited about mentoring another student who is struggling as well has been really good, not just for the kid he’s mentoring, but for him.”

Hear more about this mentoring program from Angela Nelson and Trenton Kiefer on today’s Let’s Talk Knoxville.