Community Update

NASHOBA TECH TRAINS 42 STUDENTS TO
BE MENTORS FOR INCOMING FRESHMEN

WESTFORD — Nashoba Valley Technical High School has named 42 Kick-Off Mentors, incoming juniors who will assist freshmen in the Class of 2017 and help to acclimate them to their new school.
This is Nashoba Tech’s fourth year as part of the national Kick-Off Transition Program, a comprehensive transition, orientation and mentoring program welcoming new students and their parents to their new school.
The 42 sophomores have undergone training to learn how to be mentors for incoming freshmen.
The goal of the Kick-Off Transition Program is to go beyond the customary freshman orientation day, which usually consists of a tour of the building, discussion of course options with staff members, and administrators lecturing students on the rules and regulations.
While important, those activities don’t address some of the real concerns that new students have about a school. They want to know what the first year at a new school is like, and they want to hear it from other students who have gone through it and not only survived, but flourished.
The program teaches incoming juniors how to become yearlong mentors for freshmen, helping to ease the transition for new students and their parents.
Mentors in the Kick-Off Program will coordinate and run new-student orientation in August and will organize various activities through the 2013-2014 school year to maintain the connection between the freshmen and their mentors.
Students apply as sophomores to become Kick-Off Mentors, or KOMs, and must be approved by the staff.
The following Chelmsford students have been selected as KOMs: Michaela Flanagan, Alexander Green, Ian Henry, Lauren Kelley, Kendra Malone, Grace McCarthy, Amber Uzzell, Brittany Watson, Daniel Whiting, Kaitlyn Withrow.