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Project SOAR

For the past six years, UA students involved with Project SOAR, a program organized through the College of Education, have dedicated themselves to teaching middle school students how to fly.

Since 1994, members of SOAR (Student Opportunity for Academic Renewal) have worked with Tucson Unified School district's safety office to help eighth and ninth grade students through their transition to high school.

"All the kids in this program choose to be here. They are told what the program is and asked if they want to be involved," said Jill Hewins, program coordinator for Project SOAR. "The kids we work with are referred from teachers through school counselors. These are students that are not doing well in school but teachers feel have potential to do much better."

Hewins said University of Arizona student-mentors taking part in the program are required to spend a minimum of five hours a week tutoring their students to help improve their grades and chances for success while in high school.

As part of the job description, mentors are also expected to spend social time with the students. Events such as a trip to the movies or the mall are intended to build strong relationships between the students and their mentors.

In addition to time spent with the students, mentors are required to attend several staff meetings each month and parent meetings, held five times each semester.

Despite the high expectations, SOAR has provided growing experiences for mentors as well as students.

Matt Ortiz, a secondary education junior, has been involved with SOAR for nearly four semesters as a mentor and now team leader.

"In the end, mentors stay with the program because of the personal satisfaction," said Ortiz. "We work on the belief that in the long run, these kids will be more mature and will see you as a personal role model."

Hewins said despite the abundant success with the program, SOAR has experienced some glitches with funding.

"We were funded by Coca-Cola and the state in the past," said Hewins. "Our funds were cut when Pepsi took over at the UA. Now, we receive all our funding directly from the College of Education."

Students and mentors are paired following an application and interview process led by the College of Education. In the past, the program has been quite large, but due to budget cuts, SOAR now oversees only 40 mentor/student pairs.

Schools involved with Project SOAR include Tucson High School, Doolen Middle School, Mansfeld Middle School and Roskruge Bilingual Middle School. Each school has 10 student/mentor pairs who work under a student team leader.

When a mentor is paired with a student, he or she typically tutors the same student over the course of several semesters until that student goes to high school.

Mentors not only tutor students, but often attend class with students in order to determine their style of learning, note taking habits and overall academic performance.

"Being in college and having gone through that, I think back to where I was in that grade and try and help him (or her) with strategies for note taking and other things," said Ortiz.

Ortiz also expressed some frustrations about student/mentor miscommunication related to meeting times. He said that sometimes students skip meetings without telling the mentor.

He added that student irresponsibility has sometimes led to homework and studying neglect in school.

At last night's parent meeting held at Tucson High School, students participated in a trust and responsibility building exercise with their mentors.

Two of those participating were UA physical education junior Tony Boucher and eighth grader Alex Morrell of Mansfeld Middle School.

"We work on school and homework," Boucher said, "but I also show him different things about life."

Morrell and Boucher often get together to play basketball on the weekends and after tutoring sessions.

"He's a role model," Morrell said.