Since 1998, the Christopher O'Neil Memorial Fund has provided substantial financial support for Park's Upper School Mentor Program. Mentors are Upper School students trained as peer educators to team-teach in the sixth and eighth grade life skills classes. The intent of the program is to encourage critical thinking and discussion about the issues Middle School students face, the processes by which they make decisions, the forces that influence their choices, and the options available.
Throughout the year, mentors meet weekly, hear guest speakers, read literature about adolescent behavior, and discuss current affective education topics. Dave Tracey, school counselor and program advisor, along with Middle and Upper School faculty, train and support the peer educators.
By the end of the first semester, mentors take part in a two-day working retreat. They use their readings and research, as well as personal and class experiences, to create lesson plans for life skills classes. They learn about Middle School developmental issues, conduct mock class presentations and practice classroom behavior management techniques.
Following the retreat, a 10-class syllabus is designed. The range of topics includes risk-taking, substance use, stress management, understanding cliques and popularity, dealing with cruelty, learning about self-advocacy, and identifying ways to help a troubled friend.
Our core principals for the Mentor Program are:
- Beliefs:
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- We must take action individually and as a society to protect the health and well-being of others and ourselves.
- We each have the responsibility to identify the things we can change in our surroundings and ourselves.
- We are all connected, and thus our actions, the actions of others, and the actions of the greater community matter to all of us.
- Skills:
- Mentor class curricula and activities provide a framework for students to gain the ability:
- To examine one's health beliefs, attitudes and behaviors.
- To analyze situations and actions for the degree of potential risk.
- To interact with others, to listen with understanding, to consider health needs, and to express concern for the health and well-being of self and others.
- Goals:
- To assist students in understanding that because they are unique individuals, they must learn to make decisions appropriate for themselves and the world in which they live.
- To help students understand some of the physical, social, mental, and emotional factors that influence the health-related decisions they will face.
- To help students understand the responsibility in making appropriate decisions.
- To provide students with the information and skills to work toward improving health and well-being for themselves, their families, their friends, and their communities.
- To help students understand that health decisions affect and are affected by at least six interrelated contexts: self, family, friends, workplace/school, community, and the world.
- To encourage students to help one another adopt health-enhancing behaviors and to seek additional support from friends, family, other important adults, and professional caregivers.
Over 150 students have participated in the Mentor Program since its inception in 1998. Our yearly number of participants range from 20-27. Each year the educational aspects of the program are modified based on the interests and strengths of the incoming mentors. Evaluations by life skills students at the end of each year assess their mentor experience and readily identify specific classes and topics that were particularly meaningful. The critique is used to revise and modify the program yearly.
The Christopher O'Neil Memorial Fund was named for a remarkable young man who was tragically killed in a car crash involving a teenaged drunk driver. The fund was endowed by contributions from hundreds of families and friends saddened by this loss and determined to prevent similar tragedies.
Tom and Pam O'Neil are major supporters of the fund, which is part of the Baltimore Community Foundation. The fund, started in June 1992, has sought to enhance the ability of Baltimore's schools to provide students with opportunities to learn about the relationship between health, safety and their own behaviors.
The fund seeks to establish a program in various schools with four principal goals in mind. They include:
- Utilizing a comprehensive health promotion model.
- Providing educational activities for Middle and Upper School students conducted by a rigorously trained and a carefully supervised group of peer educators.
- Include activities that bring Middle School and Upper School students and their parents together to improve mutual understanding.
- Undertake a process in which students, parents, and faculty consider instructional, policy, and service strategies that should be part of a comprehensive health program.
