HURON Huron School District was introduced to the TeamMates mentoring program at an informational meeting on Tuesday at the Huron High School Commons. TeamMates is a mentoring program where volunteer mentors from the community meet with their mentees once a week in school to build a friendship and inspire students to reach their full potential.
TeamMates Mentoring was founded in 1991 by former University of Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne and his wife Nancy, who believed that positive relationships could change lives. What started with 22 Cornhusker football players mentoring middle school students in Lincoln, Neb., has grown into a powerful movement. Proven from the start, as nearly all of those original mentees graduated and pursued further education or careers. For nearly 35 years, TeamMates Mentoring has connected students with caring mentors, starting with the vision of Nancy and Tom Osborne.
TeamMates is a school-based program. The programs vision is to maximize the number of students it serves with high-quality and long-lasting relationships. TeamMates is committed to serving students with compassion and respect, safety, integrity and trust, and inclusion. They have expanded from Nebraska to Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, South Dakota, and Wyoming.
Buchanan K-1 Center Principal, Heather DeBoer, is part of the South Dakota State Board for TeamMates and first mentioned the program during a Huron School Board meeting. DeBoer had connections in South Dakota to bring the TeamMates program into the Huron School District, and with the approval from members of the school board, the program is now beginning in the Huron High School.
During the meeting, TeamMates training and engagement coordinator Tori Pedersen presented a slide show on how to become a mentor, build a connection with a mentee, the dos and donts, and had everyone who attended do a few different activities to ensure everyone understood what TeamMates purpose and goals are.
The program is starting in the high school, said Program Director Lacey Fryberger, We would love to see it take off from here and be able to start it at the middle school, and then from there at Washington 4-5 Center, and then into the third grade.
This program gives adults from the community a chance to work with students, and gives the students someone to talk to or share information with if they need to.
If you or someone you know is interested in getting involved or donating to the Huron chapter, you can visit the website at https://teammates.org. The Board members include Program Coordinator Lacey Fryberger, President Craig Rearick, Vice President Ray Cardona, Secretary Heather DeBoer, Treasurer Ryan Goehner, Jen Bragg, and Cashayne Bogh.
I think we definitely need this program; one of the biggest challenges is going to be getting adults from the community to fill out and submit applications and for students to sign up to be mentees, Fryberger stated.
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