Transition Group by Georgia

Transition Group by Georgia - January 2017 Scholarship Essay

The spring of my junior year, I was asked by the schools probation officers if I would be a mentor for kids that might have a hard time transitioning into high school. I said yes I would love to help them because I wanted high school to be a positive experience for everyone, just like it was for me. This transition group met every tuesday at lunch. There were about 40 kids in the group that were troublemakers and about 20 mentors. So for every one mentor, there were two middle schoolers. We did things like talk to the kids about things to do in high school. We would also talk to them about things they should not do in high school, but they may have been doing at the time. The kids that were in this group were the kids that were at high risk for dropping out or not being able to graduate. The mentors would take the kids around the school and show them what cool things we had to do at West Albany. A lot of the kids, at first, were very resistant and did not want to share anything. They did not want to be apart of the group. One girl actually started a fight with another girl. But as the group went on, the kids began to be more comfortable with us and around the other kids in the group. However, the girls that I was mentoring would still tell me stories about how they were getting detentions every day and being sent to the principal's office. I tried to understand what was happening and I would tell them things like make sure to be respectful to teachers. As the group went on, we began to get closer and I think this group made the middle schoolers excited to get out of middle school.
After the group was over, I didn’t see the kids that I mentored for a while. This year at school I see kids from the group and they are doing well. I see them hanging out with their friends at lunch. As far as I know, they are staying out of trouble. A few of them, I see in the hallway and can tell they still do not care about school and think it is not important, but that thought processes has changed for a few of those kids. I am glad that I was able to be apart of something like that and I might have changed a kid’s life and may have helped them stay away from things that could change their life forever.