As the first quarter comes to a close, there are many activities and organizations to reflect on. One of these groups is Avid Mentorship, sponsored by english teacher Peter Norment, and organized by senior Kelli Showalter, the president of Avid Mentorship.

Avid Mentorship is a tutoring program started last year by alumni Michelle Waligora. Students fill out forms, informing Norment of classes they would like assistance with and Norment relays these papers to Showalter to be distributed to volunteers.

The mentors and their students keep in touch via text messaging and email to find dates that work for them to collaborate. Typically this is done after school for an hour or two, but some students also meet up after school around town. They meet as frequently as they can and continue to meet until both individuals have learned something.

This year many students have joined the program and Norment and Showalter are kept busy finding mentors to cover the vast array of subjects offered at the high school.

“We look for students who have not only taken the class that the other student needs help with, but someone who enjoyed the class and understands the material. We also try to find people that we know will actually put time in to help the student succeed,” said Showalter.

The mentors are typically juniors and seniors who have taken many classes from the four core areas of study. A requirement for many mentors is that they must be able to tutor on many subjects. They may help with biology one week, and world history the next.

“I hope that I recall the information correctly sometimes… [Avid Mentorship] is beneficial for not only the people being helped, but for me as well,” said senior Hannah Purcell.

Norment is very enthusiastic about the program. He keeps all involved with the organization active in seeking out their Avid students.

“[The students need to be] available and make sure that they are borderline annoying about meeting their people,” Norment said.

Showalter and Norment check up on the tutors frequently to ensure that they are doing their jobs. The program has been expanding over the quarter and will continue to do so for the rest of the school year which is great for Norment, Showalter, the tutors and the Avid students.