Amigos Positivos
Amigos Positivos provides a carefully selected group of ten 12th-graders for the opportunity to develop communication and leadership skills as they reach out in support to their younger students. The students meet once a month at the middle school to spend an hour with about 25-27 sixth-graders. These younger students, predominantly Hispanic students, are chosen before the beginning of the school year by counselors and teachers as academically and socially at-risk. In structured, monthly activities that span the school year, the peer mentor team provides supportive and caring relationships to the middle school students, many of whom speak English as a second language. These sixth-graders discuss concerns and questions that they may not otherwise feel comfortable addressing. With their Spanish proficient peer mentors, language barriers are not an issue for the ESOL students. Interacting with positive and proactive role models, they are invited to learn the skills needed for success at higher levels of education in a non-threatening and engaging atmosphere.