Education Guide 10.18.26 - Flipbook - Page 13
| Sunday, October 18, 2026
START YOUR
SEVERN
STORY TODAY
School counseling, along with teacher
Minda Wesley and Christie.
The three hours of training cover two
distinct things. The first is reflective:
mentors are asked to recount their own
middle school experience and name
what they wish someone had told them.
The second is practical – how to lead a
discussion, how to run an activity, and
how to hold the attention of a room full
of 13-year-olds who did not choose to
be there.
Then the mentors are deployed into
eighth grade advisories, where they
meet every Friday morning during the
advisory period.
What happens in those meetings is
often less about curriculum than about
rumor control. Eighth graders arrive with
questions about everything from spirit
week to exams to how the schedule
actually works – the unglamorous logistics that loom largest when you don’t
know the answer and don’t want to ask
an adult.
That last part is the quiet argument
for peer mentorship. A dean can explain
the exam schedule accurately and still
not be the person a 13-year-old will
admit confusion to. A sophomore can
say, “I bombed my first one, too” and
be believed.
“With any transition comes uncertainty and anxiety,” Christie says. The
program “has allowed our mentors to
manage eighth graders’ expectations
and dispel rumors and speculation.”
That’s the visible half of the payoff.
The less obvious half belongs to the
mentors themselves.
Sophomore year is an awkward middle stretch in most high schools. The
novelty of being new has worn off, and
the standing of an upperclassman hasn’t
arrived yet. It’s the year most likely to
pass without anyone asking much of
you.
“Sophomores are different,” Christie
says. “They are not the new kids anymore and they are not yet upperclassmen.”
The program hands that class something to do with the in-between. Mentors
learn to manage a group of students,
prepare activities, lead discussions and
build connections across an age gap
– the kind of responsibility that usually
waits for senior year, if it arrives at all.
For a sophomore weighing what leadership might look like at Severn, it’s a
two-year head start, and a low-stakes
one: the audience is friendly, the room
is small, and the worst outcome is an
awkward Friday.
The school has seen the effect run
in both directions, Christie says. Middle
schoolers gain a social and personal connection to students who have
already lived through what’s ahead
of them. Sophomores gain a role that
asks something of them before anyone
expects it to.
The idea behind it is simple. The best
person to explain the Upper School to
an eighth grader is someone who was
one two years ago.
Severn is more than just a school.
It’s a vibrant learning community
where every student has the
potential to be a leader. Here,
students from preschool to twelfth
grade learn that education isn’t
solely about the facts you know
but about discovering who you
are and how you can make a
difference with that knowledge.
Come see for yourself what
Severn can do for you.
Learn more at
severnschool.com/admission
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