Roaring Fork PreCollegiate is a college access program for highly motivated students in Basalt, Carbondale and Glenwood Springs who would be the first in their family to go to college. PreCollegiate has over 400 students currently enrolled throughout the Re-1 School District served by our staff and volunteers. Demand for the program greatly outstrips our ability to meet need.
How Does It Work?
The program recruits qualified students in 7th grade and they begin meeting with Staff. During 8th grade we begin to group the students together and partner them with our volunteer mentors. The mentor then follows the student through their high school career until they graduate. These are hard working, committed students who have tremendous potential.
Talented and committed mentors are the key to the PreCollegiate program. Each mentor is a role model and group leader a group of students of the same grade level. Mentors meet with their student group during the school year during school hours at least twice a month. These meetings typically are during the lunch period, last about forty-five minutes, and are scheduled through each school at a mutually convenient time for both mentors and students. Mentors are first and foremost advocates for the student, but they are also there to share life experiences, set a college-going expectation, and help the students navigate the complicated process of selecting and applying for college. In effect, a mentor is an academic and life coach, who supports his or her kids to overcome obstacles and stay on a college-bound track.
What Do Mentors do at Group Meetings?
PreCollegiate Staff program provides a curriculum for mentors and specific guidance and resources, but the program itself relies heavily on the mentors to provide the energy and creativity to determine what works best for their group.
Meeting Topics:
- General Information About and Exposure to College
- Life Skills
- Field Trips
- Exposure to Community Members Who Share Their Success Stories
- Community Service Activities
- Assistance with Academic Needs
- Career Option Discussions
Sometimes the sessions are structured nuts-and-bolts style, and other times they can be free-ranging discussions about topics of interest to you and the students.
What Is Commitment and What Are the Expectations of Mentors?
Work with students throughout the school year, from September to May.
Meet with students at least twice a month for approximately 45 minutes to one hour. Sessions are sometimes held weekly during the students’ senior year.
Communicate with students to remind them of group meetings, follow-up with them on grades or assignments.
Communicate with the program Staff if any problems or concerns arises with a student.
Attend occasional meetings and/or training sessions held with Staff.
Attend informational sessions scheduled with other mentors.
Mentors also have the option to attend other PreCollegiate activities including parent programming, summer programs, high school graduation, and college fairs.
Some mentors enjoy following up with students once they graduate from high school and go on to college, but there is no program requirement that you continue with your group after they graduate.
What Kind of Support Does the Staff Provide?
Once you complete the application process you will attend a formal mentor training session where you will learn more about being a mentor and about our curriculum.
At your request, we will attend your group meetings to support and/or monitor their progress.
We provide practical coaching and ongoing direct support and feedback for all mentors.
We furnish a resource binder you can use to prepare for student sessions.
Via email, we make sure you stay up-to-date with the program schedule and ongoing developments both in the college application process and at their school.
We organize meetings where you will have a chance to share ideas and resources with other mentors.
Can I Pair Up with Someone, Like a Spouse or a Friend?
Absolutely, we have many co-mentors for groups including friends and spouses. Often the co-mentoring approach offers distinct benefits to the students and helps you with scheduling and managing the process.
Working With a Group Throughout High School Seems Like a Long Time. What If I Can't Commit to That?
We understand that life goes on for our volunteers as much as for the students, and that high school can seem like a long time (although it goes by in a flash!). We like mentors to know going into it that it is ideal for them to stay with the kids their whole high school career, and the vast majority of our volunteers do.
Mentors are really only meeting with their groups from 1-2 hours a month for nine months, and most of our mentors report that they wish to spend more time with their groups, not less. If something happens that impacts your ability to meet the expectations we are happy to work with you and your students to get help, meet requirements, and ensure that any transitions are smooth.
Our Mentor testimonials
Paula Stepp
“Mentoring 12 students for six years as they make a journey through middle school and high school seems like a big task until you’re in the midst of it. Soon you become engaged with each student, and spend a lot of time thinking and planning on what you can do to help them plan a course to what happens after high school. In seventh grade, it seems like a distant goal, but each year you build from the past year. Before you know it, we are talking about the best class schedules in high school, developing their passions into community participation, getting to college fairs and planning for college visits.
I started with the Re-1 PreCollegiate program in 2006, and I was excited to see success come to each student. Four or five years after high school graduation, those young adults graduated with their undergraduate degrees and graduate degrees. It didn’t take long for me to understand I was ready to start with a new group.
Right now, I am in my fourth year with my second group. I know these last three years will speed by for this group as they rush to put the pieces in place they need to continue their education beyond high school. I will do what I can to continue to encourage them to take a bigger world view for themselves, their communities and for their futures.”
John Burg
“I thoroughly enjoy my meetings with my wonderful pre-collegiate students. I learn more than I impart.”
Jessica Lorah
“The two best days of my month are those that I meet with my pre-collegiate group. As we laugh, learn, and explore together, I am impressed by the insight, tenacity, and kindness displayed over and over by these kids. Being a Mentor means as much to me as it does to my team; I can’t think of a better way to contribute to their success.”
Craig Farnum
PreCollegiate Mentor for the Class of 2018
“The Roaring Fork Pre-Collegiate program creates a caring and consistent mentor relationship for first generation students who have the desire to attend college.When students graduate from the RF Pre-Collegiate program and show up at our college doorstep, they are prepared academically, personally, and socially at the highest levels.”
Milton “Tony” Mendez
PreCollegiate Class of 2009, PreCollegiate Mentor for the Class of 2016
The PreCollegiate Program has taught me the amount of support the community offers to first generation, college bound, high school students. At one point, I was one of those students. Giving back to the program as a mentor has given me the opportunity to help current high school students prepare for college and give them the tools necessary to succeed after high school.”
Dirk Fleischman
Dirk is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Dentistry at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus, and lives in Carbondale with his family. He is the mentor for the Class of 2017 at Glenwood Springs High School. When asked what he likes most about mentoring, Dirk said:
“Giving guidance to my students but not giving them the answers. They need to work through situations on their own in order to grow. Knowing that what I am doing makes a real difference, and that I am leaving my students in a better place emotionally and educationally than when they started.”
Thomas van Straaten
by Christian Bergren-Aragon, Post Independent
Erma Bombeck once said, “Volunteers are the only human beings on the face of the earth who reflect this nation’s compassion, unselfish caring, patience, and just plain love for one another.” Thomas van Straaten, an avid volunteer, is one of those unselfish people who seem to better our world everyday with his love, patience, and compassion. Straaten is a newly named mentor to eighth grade students at Basalt Middle School. He has paired with the Pre-Collegiate Program (PCP) to educate, train, and prepare students for college and post-academic life.
The Pre-Collegiate Program’s main goal is to develop relationships, promote healthy decisions, and ultimately guide students down the collegiate path. “100% of the kids enrolled in the program, past and present, have gone to college, including two young ladies that were pregnant,” Pre-Collegiate Director Adriana Ayala-Hire said. The PCP has thrived in this valley for more than three years and is offered to students whose parents have either not attended college or did not complete college.
Nova Sprick
by Mariah Martin, Post Independent
Sprick an inspiration to college-bound students
Inspiration comes in many forms. Pre-Collegiate mentor Nova Sprick is one of them. Sprick is a yoga instructor, mentor and cancer survivor. Not many people can claim to be all three.
Sprick has worked as a Pre-Collegiate mentor for only a little more than a year. She started last January, but has already made an impact on the seven girls with whom she works. None of the girls’ mentors stuck around for long because the group was shy. This was perfect for Sprick because she was shy in high school so she relates to the girls.
Sprick works with the girls every other week and then also individually in-between meetings. “My job as a mentor is to introduce (the girls) to wide varieties of jobs, and also to be another adult support outside the family,” Sprick said.
Bob Johnson
by Anna Holley, Post Independent
This man is the epitome of human decency and selflessness. Characteristics that few possess. One man who possesses such qualities is Bob Johnson. Johnson is a Pre-Collegiate mentor for whom one good deed isn’t enough.
“He has really helped me to find my way through a sea of tests and paperwork…he helps me see what I need to get to where I want to go,” a junior at GSHS Abril Loya said:
The Pre-Collegiate program is offered to students, who either had parents go to college in a different country, or are the first generation in their family to go to and complete college. “Pre-Collegiate is such an important endeavor, it gives kids a chance to better educate themselves, which is critical especially in the job market like today’s,” Loya said.
“Bob is really great, he always is willing to listen and he helps in any way he can,” Loya said. Loya has been in the program since she was a freshman because her parents did not go to college in this country.
Mark Spidell
by Drew Halsch, Post Independent
After a long day at work, most people would go home to relax; however, for Mark Spidell, a commercial lending advisor at U.S. Bank, the day doesn’t just revolve around his work. On top of his full work load, he is a pre-collegiate mentor for the Roaring Fork School District Re-1.
Mark Spidell was born in Greeley, Colo., and moved throughout his childhood from Kansas City to a small town in Oklahoma. He finally moved back to Colorado to finish his high school career. He then moved on to the University of Denver, where he received his degree in business and marketing.
After his schooling, he moved to Chicago, Ill., to work for a consulting company. Spidell eventually made his way back to Colorado, but didn’t move to Glenwood Springs until 2006. He then started his career at U.S. Bank.
Bonnie Cretti
by Connor McRaith, Glenwood Springs Post Independent
Cretti a ‘guardian of education’
College is an experience that many students around the world never have the opportunity to take a swing at. But here in the Roaring Fork Valley students have the chance to actually hit that ball when it comes and be prepared for the big leagues. This preparation takes place through a program called Pre-Collegiate.
To ready the students, mentors from around the valley volunteer their time each week to discuss issues with their mentees. These volunteers range from your average, working-class citizen to retired veterans, but all of them have the same goal: to prepare students and send them off to college.
Sue Edelstein and Bill Spence
What did you enjoy most about Mentoring for PreCollegiate?
Everything. Getting to know the kids. Being current (how else would I have known what Hunger Games was?). Crossing the socioeconomic divide and getting to know Latino families in Carbondale, and welcoming each other into our homes. Sharing our life experiences in a way that can open minds and doors of teens.
Bill Spence: We began with 10 shy, uncertain 7th graders and have watched them progress until, now in their senior year we’ve seen the sparks of nearly all wanting to go to college and to have productive lives of their own. Several have exceeded their wildest expectations and seeing their realizations of this is simply a wonderful experience as a mentor.
Sue Edelstein: Making a difference – of all the nonprofits I’ve been involved with over the years, this is the first where I KNOW that I have made a difference. There is nothing theoretical about it!
Next Steps:
If you are interested in becoming a mentor, please give us a call or email us. We’ll meet with you one-on-one to answer any questions you might have. We can also arrange for you to meet with an existing mentor. If you decide you’d like to volunteer, the school district requires a background check to ensure student safety.
We are confident that volunteering with PreCollegiate will be a life changing experience for you, and the impact you will have on students is immeasurable. Please feel free to contact us anytime!
David Smith
dsmith@rfschools.com
(970) 384-5967