The mentors program was designed to pair students with an upperclassman to help their transition and give them advice. However, in the years that the program has been active, many former mentees have complained that they barely got to know their mentor or didn’t know them at all. To remedy this, Upper School Council co-presidents Moira McCarthy and Henry Zeimer are changing the way mentors and new students are paired; they hope this will lead to better relationships.

Co-president Moira McCarthy said that “USC leads [the mentor program], so Henry and I, along with the council, decided there were certain things we wanted to change from last year. Last year we heard a lot of complaints about how [students] didn’t really know their mentors or only met with them once, so we made some different questions on the surveys we had the 8th graders fill out, and then some different ones on the surveys we had the mentors fill out so we can more accurately pair them.”

McCarthy added: “we did the pairing over the summer and now we’re planning more required meetings for the year.”

For many mentors, the program changes are a relief, as they too want to be paired with someone who is compatible with them. Junior Libby Woodson is one of those mentors.

“I wanted to be a mentor because I feel like the mentor program my freshman year wasn’t super successful. I never really met with my mentor. But I feel like it has the ability to be successful if its used the right way, so I wanted to try and use it the way I thought would have been useful as a freshman,” Woodson said.

For Woodson’s mentee, freshman Clark Waltz, the program has already had many positives, and they have met more than a few times.

Waltz said, “It’s really nice to get all your questions about high school answered. It makes school less intimidating. Also I like that the mentors a student because they’ve been through the program and they don’t sugarcoat anything.”