McCluer North High School (MNHS) and Parker Road elementary have partnered to form a student mentorship program for the young minds at Parker Road. MNHS’ Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) and Helping Younger Peers Excel (HYPE) organizations have paired up with fifth and sixth graders at Parker Road to help work on their assignments, encourage students to pursue and establish academic goals, and to develop relationships that will be beneficial for student achievement. 

“The idea stemmed from Dr. David Arledge with the HYPE program, where seniors at the high school mentored and worked closely with freshmen,” said business teacher at MNHS Harvey Love. “He brought up the idea of working with younger peers. After sharing the idea with Jane Crawford, principal at Parker Road, our high school students began partnering with Parker Road’s elementary students to help push them toward academic achievement.” 

Love began the program because he saw the significance of students developing relationships with other students. The mentorship program with Parker Road takes an intergenerational approach to building those relationships. He wanted to take students that were highly involved in various programs at MNHS to not only share their high school experience, but why it’s important to stay their course. 

“I wanted to help the next generation and show them that there’s more to life than graduating from school and making money,” said MNHS sophomore Cydney Perkins. “When we started the program, I met with a student who was thinking about dropping out of school. After we connected with him, his attitude changed, he’s more interested in school, and he’s getting better in his academics.”

“Since I started working with the program, I’ve noticed that the students want to succeed and win, but they need that extra push. I’m happy that we’re able to be the push.” said senior De’Janna Hand.