The Middletown city government, Miami University Middletown and Middletown High School are coming together to try to make a change in the community with the student-mentoring program, Step Up.
According to program's director, Angela Yesh, Step-Up is a five-year program designed to support eighth grade students through high school graduation, as well as their first year of post-secondary education.
Since February 2006, the program has been pairing a student from Middletown High School with an adult mentor, Yesh explained. These adults include Miami students and professors, as well as Middletown community members.
James Ewers, associate dean of student affairs at Miami Middletown, explained that the program is intended to provide Middletown students with opportunities they may not have had otherwise.
"One of the main goals of this program is to ensure opportunities for college," Ewers said.
The program was created for high school students needing help graduating high school, Yesh said.
"The idea was that the community as a whole would benefit greatly by helping those students graduate and go on to college," Yesh said.
According to Yesh, high school students can qualify to participate in the program if they have low academic achievement, multiple absences and a certain socioeconomic status. Students also have to be recommended by a counselor, teacher, parent or a member of the community.
Yesh said that the program is specially tailored for each student.
"The program is designed in cooperation with the student participants, their parents and community members to help ensure the program fits each individual's needs," she said.
The program provides tutoring, career education, exposure to career options, social events and anything necessary for the students to achieve their goals, according to Yesh.
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Currently, there are 17 active high school students in the program.
According to Ewers, the minimum amount of time mentors spend with their student each month is 16 hours-approximately four hours each week. The amount of time varies, Ewers said, depending on the relationship the mentor has with his or her student.
Sam Debrozsi is a senior at Miami and has been a mentor for Step Up for nearly two years.
"It's a simple, nearly effortless way to affect an enormous change on a young adult's life," Dobrozsi said.
According to Ewers, students are given a set of achievement goals, which are then followed by an award if achieved at the end of the year. These awards include an iPod after the first year, a laptop computer after the third year, and after the completing four years of the program, the high school students are then given a scholarship for their first year at Miami Middletown.
"(In the future, the program) hopes to have funding to allow the student to attend another school of their choice," Yesh said.
Dobrozsi has found the experience to be especially rewarding.
"I'm now in a place where I've become so invested that I truly believe I'm doing the best, most important work of my life," Dobrozsi said.
According to Dobrozsi, in the short time the program has been around, they have seen their group of children raise their attendance, GPA and social attitude.
Plus, Dobrozsi believes that in five or 10 years, this could be a program that truly changes the city of Middletown.
According to Yesh, Step Up is a yearlong program, with monthly training sessions offered for student mentors. Mentor training is held every other month, with a special session held in the summer-referred to as "Summer Academy"-in which professors and staff members offer presentations and discussions for the students on such topics as the importance of academics.
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