Believe It Or Not I Care: Compassionate community outreach for high school student empowerment and excellence

Presenter Information

Heidi LarsonFollow

Length of Presentation

50 minutes

Start Date

15-10-2021 10:00 AM

End Date

15-10-2021 10:50 AM

Document Type

Presentation

Abstract

This presentation will outline the impact of the Believe It Or Not I Care (B.I.O.N.I.C) program, which provides effective and inclusive assistance for the diverse needs of the students, faculty, and staff at Mattoon High School. Junior and senior mentors are trained to see and meet the need of fellow students struggling with difficult life circumstances. These life events range from transitioning to a new high school building either as a freshman or a transfer student, dealing with a loss of a family member, or struggling with academic performance. Some of these mentors will also be given extra leadership opportunities such as leading monthly team meetings. For the mentors helping freshmen transition into high school, a new mentor-mentee matchmaking process will be implemented to match freshmen mentees with a mentor and other mentees that have similar interests. Our hope through this process is to see greater overall satisfaction from both the mentors and mentees.

(Keywords: Mentor, Students, Leadership, Diversity, COVID-19, Community, Relationships, Altruism, Diligence, & Excellence)

Description

This presentation will discuss the data-based B.I.O.N.I.C. program and its impact on student leaders. We will discuss the program’s initiative to better support students, families, and faculty in the community. We will also discuss how B.I.O.N.I.C. aided in the transition to hybrid learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the transition back to in-person learning. The B.I.O.N.I.C. program is led by graduate students who assist student leaders in outreach efforts within the community. Such a program promotes student excellence by fostering leadership skills in students in addition to increasing empathic relationships among various groups of students. Student leaders work with their respective B.I.O.N.I.C. team to support the community and school. We will discuss the four B.I.O.N.I.C. teams: Grief, Tutor, Transfer, and Freshman Mentoring, and the support that each of the teams provide.

With the peer support B.I.O.N.I.C provides, those students affected by personal loss, academic struggle, and acclimation to a new school, can find proper support and remain on the path towards academic and personal excellence. This program’s goal is to help students, educators, and administrators learn more about the diverse needs experienced by students and staff as well as programs that effectively connect them to services or support. The target audience of the B.I.O.N.I.C. program are students across all grade levels at Mattoon High School, families in the Mattoon community, and school faculty at Mattoon High School. We will discuss Mattoon High School student’s diverse range of needs and how the four B.I.O.N.I.C. teams provide support and connect students to resources for potential personal, relational, and academic challenges during a student’s time throughout high school.

Speaker Information

Presenter Bio – Dr. Heidi Larson: Dr. Heidi Larson is a professor in the Counseling and Higher Education department at Eastern Illinois University. Since the academic year of 2013-2014, Dr. Larson and a team of counseling graduate interns have partnered with Mattoon High School to implement B.I.O.N.I.C (Believe It Or Not I Care), a school wide mentoring program. This year, Jen Carleton, Josh Kim, Karis Lee, Hailey Pick, and Michael Roggenkamp are helping Dr. Larson lead the four B.I.O.N.I.C. teams. All of the counseling interns are in the School Counseling graduate program at EIU.

Presenter Bio – Jen Carleton: Jen Carleton is a second year graduate student in the Counseling program. She is getting her specialization in School Counseling and is completing her internship hours at Mattoon High School in Mattoon, IL. Jen works alongside Dr. Heidi Larson and four other School Counseling interns and leads the B.I.O.N.I.C. Grief team.

Presenter Bio – Josh Kim: Josh Kim is a second year graduate student in the Counseling program. He is getting his specialization in School Counseling and is completing his internship hours at Mattoon High School in Mattoon, IL. Josh works alongside Dr. Heidi Larson and four other School Counseling interns and leads the B.I.O.N.I.C. Tutor team.

Presenter Bio – Karis Lee: Karis Lee is a second year graduate student in the Counseling program. She is getting her specialization in School Counseling and is completing her internship hours at Mattoon High School in Mattoon, IL. Karis works alongside Dr. Heidi Larson and four other School Counseling interns and leads the B.I.O.N.I.C. Transfer team.

Presenter Bio – Hailey Pick: Hailey Pick is a second year graduate student in the Counseling program. She is getting her specialization in School Counseling and is completing her internship hours at Mattoon High School in Mattoon, IL. Hailey works alongside Dr. Heidi Larson and four other School Counseling interns and co-leads the B.I.O.N.I.C. Freshman Mentoring team.

Presenter Bio – Michael Roggenkamp: Michael is a second year graduate student in the Counseling program. He is getting his specialization in School Counseling and is completing his internship hours at Mattoon High School in Mattoon, IL. Michael works alongside Dr. Heidi Larson and four other School Counseling interns and co-leads the B.I.O.N.I.C. Freshman Mentoring team.

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