Robin Pletcher, AP Psychology and K-8 Mentoring teacher, speaks to applicants for the future class of mentors. She said, “They are representing the high school and going into these other schools. I need to be able to know that they are responsible and reliable and that I can trust them being out of the building for that G3 period.”

According to Robin Pletcher, AP Psychology and K-8 Mentoring teacher, ISTEP testing at the Carmel elementary and middle schools caused the schedules to be different so a few mentors partnered up throughout the week.

“Sometimes it was like three mentors with one kid which the kid kind of thought it was a special day because they got all that special high schooler attention,” she said. “I know at one of the schools, a bunch of them got together in a room with like two kids and there was eight mentors, and the kids just loved it. They thought it was nice getting all that attention from the cool high schoolers.”

Senior and mentor Emily Klotz said she joined the program to gain more experience working with children.

“I’ve always wanted to be an elementary teacher for as long as I remember so I’ve done education professions and things like that,” she said. “I worked at a daycare so I’ve done a lot of things with kids and so when I heard about this program I was like ‘That’s pretty much perfect to have the one-on-one connection with a student.’”