Mentorship at The Acadamy: Positive benefits and heightened opportunities

By Adella Catanzaro ’23

Typically in high schools around the United States, friendships tend to be isolated to grade levels and sometimes even include a hazing of younger students. This culture can lead to limited opportunities for students to learn from one another. A unique characteristic of The Academy is the cultivation of cross-grade friendships, partly due to the small size of the student body. When I first entered The Academy in 8th grade, I quickly bonded with a junior. This student played a large role in my absorption into the community. He introduced me to people and showed me around. Later, he became a close friend who provided kind advice and a warm hug when I needed it. This friendship has outlasted his time at The Academy and is one I hope to carry with me for many years to come. Cross-grade mentorship is a common experience at The Academy, “When I was in 7th grade, a few of the seniors helped to make sure that I was comfortable at The Academy, and they sort of initiated and demonstrated how to communicate with other grades. They also showed me how to build relationships with teachers.” says Rhiannon Campbell, ‘23. People often identify with their graduation year, but at The Academy, the graduation year is more of a timestamp than a group and friendship divider.

When the idea struck for me to write this article, I sent a survey to Academy students and a few alumni. I received feedback that an overwhelming majority, more than 93% of survey respondents, described having friends in other grades. There were a number of other trends that I noticed in the information that I gathered. The most frequent comment that I heard was that students were inspired by one another. This was the case both for older students being inspired by younger students and vice versa. Paloma Hsiao-Shelton, ‘24, says, “I like talking to the younger kids, it’s refreshing, they’re so silly.” This past year, as a junior, I played the role of mentor. For the younger students I mentored, I helped them get involved in school activities and provided advice, support, and a hug whenever necessary. I learned just as much from this side of things as I did from my mentor when I was a middle schooler. This was often a huge source of motivation for me to push myself and be the best version of myself I could be. Along with positive benefits in the school environment and culture, cross-grade mentorship is extremely formative for students outside of school too. It teaches students to interact with people at other stages of their lives and to learn from them. As a student in the class of ‘25 puts it, “[Cross-grade mentorships] has helped me become the person I am today.”