On October 23, 2022, the Morgan Mentors returned to this year’s freshmen advisories. Prior to the first lesson, all new and returning mentors devoted their personal time, for almost 3 hours on October 3 just so they could be prepared to help and welcome the incoming freshmen. School Counselor Christie Williams-Kahn, is the eyes behind what the program has become today. 

There are a total of fifty-six Morgan Mentors this year, helping the eleven freshmen advisories. Each advisory ranges from having four to six mentors per room from sophomores to seniors. This is a completely different feel from when Mrs. Williams-Kahn initially took this program on, where there were only about twenty-eight to thirty students volunteering to help. 

Caught by surprise, even though Mrs. Williams-Kahn is the eyes behind the program now and has transformed it into such an amazing thing, she was not the original creator. She took over this program from a former school counselor, Jan O’Brien. Mrs. Williams-Kahn shared that Mrs. O’Brien “had this vision of how to connect students with students. It was a passion of hers, so she really spearheaded it and then each year it has grown larger and larger.” 

Mrs. Williams-Kahn decided to take over this program because both she and Mrs. O’Brien had similar passions to help deliver information to students in a larger way than just one on one. She believes “it’s a win-win for everyone.”

Senior Iris Dunham has been a mentor for three years. Iris decided to keep returning year after year. She said that “I like the impact I have on everyone.”  She said she likes seeing how the freshmen grow each time she does a lesson with them during advisory.

Iris’ favorite memory from mentoring the past few years was “The door decorating for Christmas, just cause it kind of builds a connection outside of school related topics with the freshmen.”

Sophomore Lili Luciani started mentoring for the first time this year, after experiencing having the mentors come to her advisory last year when she was a freshman. Lili said, her mentors last year “really helped me adapt to high school, and I want to have the same influence that the mentors had on me, for the freshmen.”

Lili also repeatedly mentioned that her mentors freshman year “helped me feel like I was a part of the ‘We are Morgan. We are Family.’” This is what Morgan Mentors strive for when helping the incoming freshman because transferring over from middle school to high school can be a scary experience. 

On November 8th, a panel led by ten of the Morgan mentors presented ‘Everything I Wish I Knew as a 9th grader.’ In this discussion, different mentors ranging from sophomores to seniors gave advice to the freshmen. These ideas could be study suggestions, how to choose classes, to how to manage your social life with school life. 

Overall, there will be five total lessons with the mentors this 2022-2023 school year. The last and final lesson will be on January 24th, and will be a final wrap up, ending with an open discussion where the freshmen can ask any further questions. 

Mrs. Williams-Kahn’s overall goal with this program “is to continue to get better and to continue to impact the school environment in a positive way.” She hopes to continue to help the incoming freshmen feel like they belong and to help connect the upperclassmen with the underclassmen. 

As Lili said, here at Morgan, “We are one big Family.”