For the past four years, volunteers from Marin Covenant Church and other community friends have participated in a mentor program at Hamilton School in the Novato Unified School District. The program, Hamilton Mentor, is going strong, and mentors meet weekly with the students they are matched with. The mentors involved with the program go through training and give underserved K-8 students at Hamilton School opportunities to participate in activities and get involved in the community.
The mentor program at Hamilton School was officially started in February 2015 and originally consisted of a mentor center in a small room in the library with 20 mentors matched with students that the administration and the faculty felt could benefit from being mentored. The mentor program is now comprised of over 100 mentor-mentee matches with many more students on waitlists to get into the program.
Hamilton School is a Title One school with 74.4% of its 613 students living in a low income household. The school, under the leadership of Principal Steve Hospodar, has made great strides in creating a nurturing environment where diversity is celebrated and living in poverty is not shameful. The Mentor Hamilton program strives to walk alongside the administration and faculty at Hamilton School in support of academic success. Since the mentor program has started, Principal Hospodar has seen less students in his office and Hamilton School was even named a California Gold Ribbon School.
The program was designed to provide mentoring by caring adults in the community to the students at Hamilton School. Principal Hospodar said, “Mentoring is a gift to both the student as well as the mentor. The Mentor is a friend, a confidant, an advocate.The biggest part of the mentorship at Hamilton is the positive experiences they are having in the mentor center... their mentor is able to gently guide them through what is sometimes a tumultuous period of their life.”
Hamilton School has no doubt that Hamilton Mentor creates a lasting positive effect on every student involved. The program has had effects such as dramatically decreasing the probability of the student becoming involved in high risk behavior as a teen and increasing the chances that the students involved will graduate from high school and college. Because of the efforts of caring mentors, teachers, and staff involved at Hamilton, the school is now known as a place of high academic achievement for all where students are prepared to meet their full potential.
About Novato Unified School District
With a history of serving the community since 1859, the Novato Unified School District (NUSD) is situated in the gorgeous rolling hills in the North Bay. Just thirty minutes north of San Francisco, Novato is said to be the gateway to California’s wine country. The mission of Novato Unified School District is to engage, inspire and empower all students to reach their life goals in the rapidly changing world. The vision of NUSD is to create a caring environment at each school where students receive an innovative and personalized learning experience to help them develop the skills needed to be successful.
Visit the District website at www.nusd.org and follow NUSD on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Media Contact
Company Name: Novato Unified School District
Contact Person: Leslie Benjamin
Email:Send Email
Phone: (415) 897-4201
Address:1015 7th St
City: Novato
State: CA
Country: United States
Website: www.nusd.org
