Mentoring Scholarship Program

At Killdeer Public Schools our school combines K-12 into one building. For the past two years we have incorporated a mentoring program called "Big Minion, Little Minion." The program requires high school students to write a short essay as to why they would like to be a part of the program. We ask them to express why they believe the mentoring program makes a difference in our school and why they believe they should be chosen for the program. We also ask that students express their strengths and weaknesses and how they believe they can use them to help our elementary students. In order for elementary students to be paired up with a high school student they must be recommended by their teacher or parents. Most students are recommended for the program because of academic needs. While others need some extra attention in regards to their social skills. The "Big Minion, Little Minion" program has allowed our high school students to become more involved in the development of our future generations. It allows them to obtain volunteer hours to put on their college applications. They are required to spend at least 20 minutes a week with their Little Minion. There are numerous activities that the Big Minions do with the Little Minions. For example, they may spend time helping them in the classroom on assignments, some come to elementary PE while others take their Minion to High School PE, Art or Science. I have also seen High School students eat lunch with their Little Minion to help build social skills. At the end of each month they turn their hours in to me, Ashley Jelly. I keep a record of their hours on a spreadsheet, thus allowing us to see who is committed to the program and who needs to be reminded to visit. What I love about this program is that not only do we see an improvement in our elementary students academically and socially, but for the high school students who are involved in the program, there is a sense of pride that they carry with them around school. So many Big Minions come and talk to me about how they feel like their Little Minion is making a bigger difference in their life than they are in the Little Minions life. In our second year of the program we would like to offer a scholarship of $500 dollars to the top two students who put in the most amount of time and effort into their Little Minion. Students who would like to apply for the scholarship will be asked to fill out an application that entails all they accomplished with their Minion. We hope that this scholarship opportunity will motivate more students in the next year to become involved in the program. We currently have a little over 50 students involved in the high school and we would love to see this number increase every year. Your donations will help us to reward these students who not only commit to their own school work and extracurricular activities but who also dedicate their time to the future of our school. They truly symbolize what it means to give back to our community.