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Bambrick-Santoyo, P. (2012). Leverage Leadership. San Francisco: Wiley.
Huckestein, S. (2018 Apr 24). Personal Interview

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The Young Women's Mentoring group touches on two of the cultural levers mentioned in Bambrick-Santoyo's, Leverage Leadership. Strengthening student culture and staff culture by building relationships and promoting a safe environment for students to learn and grow. It is happening more and more, that students are not receiving the proper social guidance at home. The women's mentoring group provides that support for students and gives them an outlet to talk to a teacher. What the young women learn in group, they are then able to take with them into the classroom. Since starting the program 2 years ago, the number of discipline referrals has declined, and continues to decline. The administration has used our program as a model and is now requiring students who do get a referral to complete a mentoring program with their guidance counselor. Overall, our middle school has the best school climate in the county - we listen to our students.

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At my current middle school, we are in our second year of having a Young Women's Mentoring Group. This group is made up of young women who either volunteer to be a part of the group or are recommended by a teacher. All teachers that participate are volunteers. The goal of the group is to have a safe place for young women to have once a week to discuss struggles they may be having socially or academically. Both group and private mentoring services are offered. In addition, academic support if offered. Students are not able to participate in the extra activities if they don't put effort into their school work and maintain a C average or higher. We want to see the young women be successful in all aspects of their lives. This group supports a positive school climate in all aspects. We are giving a sense of safety and security, teaching social skills and supporting academics, help to build relationships between peers and staff, and promote respect for the environment.

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-Student culture
-Staff culture
-Managing school leadership teams

Bambrick-Santoyo, 2012

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Division-wide climate survey results. (Huckestein, 2018).
(Click picture to enlarge)

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Division-wide climate survey results for students. (Huckestein, 2018).
(Click picture to enlarge).

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Promoting a positive school climate for all

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Students see how well the staff work together. Teachers who model how people should work together, helps students to see how they should behave with their peers.

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Administration has a clear vision for students and staff. Teachers are very supportive of the administrations vision. Administration wants to build up students, teachers, and other staff members. This creates a very positive climate.

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Students learn how to navigate social media. They learn what to post, what not to post, and how much weight they should put on something someone said on social media. This concept is the hardest for the students because their lives are becoming social media.

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The building is kept very clean by the custodial staff. The administration demands students respect the building and have the expectation that they clean up after themselves. Teachers enforce these rules in their individual classrooms.

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Students are more willing to come to school when they feel it is a safe place and they have someone to bond with. This could be a peer or an adult.

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Students who participate build new relationships with the other young women in the group. They look out for one another, and learn how to make new friends in their classes or at lunch.

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The teacher volunteers are whole-heartily want to see these girls be successful in aspects of their lives. Middle school is a hard time for young women, and we are there to give them support for their social and academic lives.

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Any young women from the school is welcome. We teach them why it is important to not judge others, bully, and be excepting of other peoples differences.

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The group structure follows a social skills program to help the young women to develop better ways to problem solve, communicate better with teachers and peers, and control their emotions so they can use them in a more effective way.

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If students need help with homework, they may choose to work 1:1 with a teacher instead of participating in group. We are there for these girls in all capacities to help them to be successful.

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The whole point to creating this school-wide program was to help young women to have a safe place to talk about school/life stress, and help them to problem solve. The program is building up social-emotional security.

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Their are enough teacher volunteers with the program that the ratio of teachers to students is 1:2. Each student gets attention they need while at group. Students feel safe and secure throughout the group meetings. Additionally, there are enough teacher volunteers/chaperones for the filed trips that students are able to be put into smaller groups ensuring their safety.

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Rules are set at the first meeting and reviewed at each following meeting. The students that participate understand that if they do not follow the rules that are set, they may be asked to leave the group or not be permitted on field trips.