Mentor Advisory Program

The St. Mary’s Advisory Program is designed to meet the unique needs of our Middle School students during a time of significant change and growth in their lives.  Each student is assigned to a St. Mary’s faculty member who serves as an advisor to meet the social, emotional, and academic needs of the student.  With Advisory’s emphasis on communication and relationships, students are supported in their growth and development throughout the three year Middle School experience with the advisor and the small, co-ed, grade specific group of students.  Weekly meetings between the advisor and advisee group will allow students to set goals, develop service learning projects, practice leadership and social skills, and advance personally and academically with close guidance.  Mid- year conferences consisting of advisor, advisee, and advisee’s parents holistically evaluate the progress of the student.  By focusing on the developmental growth of our Middle School students, a strong relationship and partnership develops between teachers, parents, advisors, and students.

Elements of the Advisory Program

• Goal Setting: Students will learn how to set and obtain goals to develop and understand their responsibility and ownership of social, emotional, and academic objectives.

• Social Contact: A smaller community for more individualized communication is created and supported by the teachers, parents, student, and advisor.

• Weekly Reflection: Meetings will allow for assessment of progress to demonstrate growth and progress toward goals.

• Behavior Modification: Students are able to discuss with their advisors ways to demonstrate behavior which make them a positive member of their school community.

• Service Learning: Students will develop a greater knowledge of their surrounding community through ongoing planning, leadership opportunities, and problem solving in developing their own service learning project.