The Peer Leadership program, an eight-year-old tradition, is an important part of the Upper School community. Each year, seniors apply for the Peer Leadership program and sixteen are selected to take up a group of ninth graders and mentor them throughout the school year.
The Peer Leader partnerships for this year’s ninth graders are Jayden Lewis and Julia Tourtellotte, Emma Vernick and Sulayman Hussain, Bella Dawson and Bri Matos, Aidan Short and Annika Yeh, Eva Vanterpool and Nathaniel Rodwell-Simon, Shriya Reddy and Cassandra Domingez, Ava Savino and Shelby Noel, and Jaylen Patel and Macey Wilkins. Photo by Julia Applegate (MFS SmugMug).
An important aspect of the Peer Leadership program is what motivates seniors to get involved and volunteer. Jaylen Patel ’23 explained his motivation to apply as a peer leader: “I’ve been here since preschool, so I think finally being a leader for the younger generation as a senior has been something I’ve been looking forward to, and also I love working with kids and mentoring them.”
Sulayman Hussain ’23 echoed a similar sense of giving back to the underclassmen: “I wanted to become a Peer Leader because when I was a freshman in a new school, I really looked up to my peer leaders and I’m still friends with them today.” He mentioned that they “inspired [him] to be a peer leader.”
Each Peer Leader has their own unique and special experiences, aspirations, values, and memories that they apply to their groups. Cassandra Dominguez ’23 spoke about her goals for the year in Peer Leadership, saying, “I hope to be able to let them know that I’ll always be available to them even [when] I’m in college, so that they know they always have access to me regardless of the circumstances. I also hope that they learn that high school is not as scary as it seems to be and that it’s easy if you make it easy.”
Other Peer Leaders shared similar goals for the school year. Julia Tourtellotte ’23 said she “hopes to impact [the ninth graders] by helping them be more comfortable in high school and get them more accustomed to the school whether they are new [MFS students] or new to high school. I just want to help them feel comfortable and set them up for a great high school experience.”
Fellow Peer Leader Aidan Short ’23 related to Tourtellotte in wanting to help the new students navigate the Upper School: “I hope they gain knowledge and experience about high school and about life in general that can really help propel themselves. I hope that I leave a lasting impact on them and allow them to really grow as individuals.”
Even though the new Peer Leaders will only have the position for one school year, many say they hope to leave things behind both to those that they mentor and to those who also have hopes of one day becoming a Peer Leader.
Patel provided some inspiration and advice for future Peer Leaders: “I think putting yourself out there and putting yourself in their shoes is important because you were once in Peer Leadership, and you know what it was like to meet your kids for the first time. I think what is important is being open to new ideas and letting them lead the Peer Leadership to see what they want to get out of it.”
