Hastings High School provides freshmen with FMP (Freshmen Mentoring Program) to help ease freshmen into the transition from middle school to high school. Does FMP really help with this transition, or does it fail in its attempt to make freshmen more comfortable with Hastings High?
“FMP helps the freshmen feel comfortable up here at the high school, it also helps them develop relationships with upperclassmen and FMP advisors,” FMP advisor, Kendra Laux said.
She also says FMP is supposed to feel like a family. Freshmen, mentors and advisors are supposed to develop a bond and create a feeling of safety in their FMP.
FMP has been a part of this school for at least ten years. For all of those years, with the exception of last year, FMP met everyday. Last year, they only met on Fridays and freshmen were in T3 Monday through Thursday. This year they have gone back to their regular meeting times. FMP’s are now their own T3 with freshmen and mentors together.
However last year, these goals of FMP were not met with the time allotted on Friday. Laux feels that that now FMP is back to a regular schedule that improvements will be made.
Laux also expressed that FMP could improve by continuing working on academic things more than some of the more fun activities. Helping kids become more familiar with things such as PowerSchool and their planners is more ideal than dodgeballs tournaments.
“I think it could have been used for better things, it really doesn’t take that long for Freshmen to get used to the school,” sophomore Joe Keele said.
Keele feels that FMP was mainly just playing games and not working.
Sophomore Eric Fielder thinks FMP helped him get used to high school and to be a better freshman. Fielder says that his mentors really helped him and made him feel more welcomed.
“One of my senior mentors walked me to my classes and showed me where all of them were,” Fielder said.
Fielder was still able to make a connection with his mentors while only seeing them once a week.
“They were my friends, they helped me,” Fielder said.
Freshmen Nikkos Theoharis enjoys FMP this year. Theoharis said that it helps him meet a lot of new people that he might not have got to meet without FMP.
“My mentors are really fun, they always get involved and are there if you need them,” Theoharis said
Theoharis thinks FMP this year is great the way it is.
Senior mentor Erica Thompson has a purpose for being a mentor.
“I had an extremely positive role model as my FMP mentor, I want to be that positive impact that she was to incoming freshmen and underclassmen who look up to me,” Thompson said.
Thompson wants freshmen to realize that school spirit isn’t lame and that it should be celebrated rather than bashed on,” Thompson said.
“FMP ‘forces’ freshmen out of their comfort zones and out of the masks they put on,” Thompson says.
Thompson feels that FMP could improve by having more character building activities during the week versus just doing stuff on Friday.
