Senior to Senior
The Agua Fria High School District, Senior to Senior program was a result of a 10-year strategic plan laid out by the Agua Fria district. “One of the tenets of the strategic plan was to cultivate community, and what we thought would be a great idea was to try to bridge the generational gap between our students and some of the seniors in our community,” Supt. Mark Yslas said.
The program partners high school seniors from the Agua Fria District with senior members of the surrounding community. The partnership helps graduating high schoolers by exposing them to mentors in life, business and education. Seniors in the community get to build lasting intergenerational friendships and practice their mentorship skills. That’s where our Rotary club stepped. We recruited Rotarians and other community members with diverse professional backgrounds to interact, form intergenerational relationships, to learn from each other and help students envision their future after graduation.
Each month the group meets to explore various topics such as financial literacy, networking, technology, to do site visits at their schools, do community service work together and the highlight of the year, reading with their mentor to elementary school children as part of the Read Across America program.
Our Rotarians are quoted as saying: “it is just an amazing experience”; “Extremely rewarding to be able to support and build relationships with our young people”; and one more…”meeting these students on their level truly gives me confidence for the future.”
We believe this is a WIN-WIN partnership with our local high school district!!