STAR and Crystal honors
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has named SBISD’s Collegiate Challenge Program a STAR Award winner for promoting a college-going culture in our schools and for helping high school students make the leap to higher education.
Also in December, the district’s SpringBoard Mentor Program was named a top Crystal Award winner by the Texas Association of Partners in Education (TAPE). The program pairs students "on the brink of success" with caring adults, or mentors, who visit with the students weekly and serve as a role model, advocate, and friend.
The program has grown from about 40 mentors in 2002 to more than 600 mentors today. It also recently earned praise from the Texas GEAR UP program as the top school-based mentoring program in the state.
The Collegiate Challenge program has tripled in size and helped nearly 100 high school students apply for college and pursue scholarship applications. It has been recognized as a Texas High School Project Exemplar Program, too.
Thirty students worked with adult mentors last year to earn admission invitations to more than 70 colleges and universities. They qualified for more than $300,000 in scholarships.
Today, about 50 students at Northbrook High are mentored by Chapelwood United Methodist Church volunteers. Thirty more Stratford High students are now paired with Memorial Drive United Methodist Church volunteers, and 15 students are mentored at Spring Woods High.
The Spring Branch Education Foundation recently awarded a $5,000 grant to the program to help pay related program stipends.
Elsewhere, GEAR UP mentors and the students that they advise along with the district’s SpringBoard Mentor Program Model were selected earlier this year to be part of the state’s GEAR UP Mentor Toolkit. The “toolkit” will include a video and interviews featuring Spring Woods High mentors and the students they counsel, also known as mentees. |
