Peer tutoring and peer mentoring are invaluable pieces of the education process, certainly in high schools and middle schools. Older peer role models, having a classmate or other peer helping another get through a challenge in a class, leading by example, and as a tutor or mentor, really getting to understand a topic through teaching it or thinking about life situations and self-reflection, are all such important aspects of what happens in schools.
In SOS, we've been doing peer mentoring in our Chem/Phys Program for a number of years, where senior girls work with junior and sophomore girls who enjoy advanced STEM classes and projects. Because, historically, there tends to be large drop-offs in enrollments of girls taking advanced math and physical science courses in high school and college, our program has taken what used to be ~3:1 and 4:1 ratios of boys to girls in Chem/Phys and moved it so much closer to 1:1 ratios (and we've even had sections with more girls than boys in them the last five years). Going into the 2026-27 school year, our Mentoring teams want to expand and take on other projects, primarily with working in the SEE SAW Project with girls in Sierra Leone, our tower garden project, and (hopefully) begin and establish a relationship with the Kranti School in India.
We have done peer tutoring with Chem/Phys for decades, and this has junior and senior students help sophomores who may be struggling with the new demands in sophomore year or with individual topics or units in physics and chemistry. This works well since, to no fault of their own, other tutors within the school often do not work at the levels of the Chem/Phys classes. This benefits sophomores with free tutoring with others who have already taken the course, and it helps the tutors by reinforcing old material, working towards mastery, and getting community service hours.
The peer mentoring continues in Project Excite sessions, where high school students work directly with elementary students. This provides positive older peer role models for elementary students, and begins the process of building self-confidence and a sense of belonging for students of color.
The importance of peers supporting and helping other peers rise up together through mentoring!
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