Every freshman at Pearce High School starts the year with senior mentors already assigned to look out for them, through a program the Richardson campus has run for 16 years.
Richardson ISD featured the program, called Starting Off Strong, in a Unity Day post on Wednesday. Its senior mentors are known as Lifeguards, and this year 104 of them are covering the entire freshman class.
How it works
The contact starts before high school does. Lifeguards join the tours given to eighth graders and meet incoming students early, then walk freshmen to class during the first week of school and introduce them to Pearce traditions, the district wrote.
The work continues through the year in freshman advisory periods. Seniors are grouped into teams of four, called Quads, and those teams lead advisory lessons that range from homecoming week to a session titled "Ensuring Intent Matches Our Impact." Freshmen can bring their questions to older students rather than only to adults.
Five staff members, called Coast Guards, select the seniors, guide lesson planning and run the program. Seniors apply at the end of their junior year, and the district says hundreds apply each year, from athletes and cheerleaders to bilingual students and National Merit semifinalists. The district describes the commitment as hundreds of volunteer hours.