One district, one building, one goal: connection.
One way we’re building connections? Tiger Pals.
Tigers Pals is our new peer-to-peer mentoring program unique to the Griswold Community School District. To our knowledge, it’s the only one of its kind in the state of Iowa. “It’s a chance to create real-life heroes for elementary students with someone they can look up to and someone in the building who can help cheer them on throughout the year,” said Griswold Elementary principal, Nigel Horton.
We paired every high school and middle school student with an elementary student. These matches will remain the same for the entire school year - maybe even multiple years - to form stronger relationships. Every month during Tiger Time (study hall), our Tiger Pals will get together in an organized, school-wide event. During the first week of school, our introductory activity was to match up the Tiger Pals. All students congregated in the gymnasium and were given a sticker. They had to find their “match” by finding a student with the same sticker. Upon finding their Tiger Pal, all students were asked to fill out an “all about me” form to not only spark conversation, but to also determine what extracurricular activities students are interested in. One aspect of the district’s new strategic plan is to increase student involvement. What better way to do this than with a buddy?
September’s event was making friendship bracelets with colored beads that represented various traits we love to see within our youth. For example, a black bead represented bravery; a blue bead represented kindness and trust. The activity was not only fun, but it got students talking. One high school student was heard explaining bravery to a pre-school student and asking them about ways they’ve been brave; another pair was heard talking about fun things they like to do after school. “We’re all in one building together. I’m most excited that we can capitalize on that and see connections being built within our entire student body,” said elementary counselor, Alyssa Karwal.
With only two social activities so far, we can already feel positive things happening. “We’re seeing some of the older kids really come out of their shells while working with the younger kids,” said Amy Akers, middle school and high school Counselor. She added that the program is allowing us to see areas of “communication skills that may need improvement.” Observing these things now gives us time to work on those areas so our students leave our school with great tools to take on the world and people around them.
This peer-to-peer mentoring program is something our counselors and administration are passionate about and are excited to make it grow. “Children don’t always want to take advice from adults. For them to have a cool, older peer to look up to might be the solution needed to encourage them to make personal changes to put them on a better path while in our building,” said Akers.
As a district, we are hopeful that our older students will take more accountability for themselves once they realize the opportunity they have to be a positive influence on their younger peers. For the younger students, they get advice and guidance from someone new, someone to open up to or someone to learn from. “We want all kids to feel like they are part of something. We want them to see we all have someone to lean on,” said Karwhal.
Other student-to-student mentoring programs around the nation have been proven to build confidence and leadership skills in the mentors, improve academic interests for mentees and overall create a sense of belonging and positive school culture for all involved. The Griswold CSD is confident that their new Tiger Pals program will have the same impact on their district. So far, feedback from school families has been positive. One first grade parent reported that their child came home from school so excited that their Pal had given them a high five in the hallway and asked them how their day was going. We are reminded that it’s often the smallest interactions that can mean the most and we have no doubt that the Tiger Pals program will give us so many more of these feel-good interactions.
Check back every month to see the program develop throughout the year.