Best Schools 2023: At La Salle High School, mentors and students form lasting bonds

The transition from middle school to high school is difficult under the best of circumstances. When Mehki Barksdale started at La Salle High School, a Catholic, all-male high school in Monfort Heights, in 2020, it was an especially difficult time; due to the pandemic, classses were both virtual and in-person, and would remain that way for months.

But Barksdale and his La Salle classmates had one resource many other freshmen didn’t—one-on-one mentorship with a La Salle adult. From their first days at La Salle, each student is matched with a faculty or staff member who will meet with them over the course of the next several years.

Barksdale was matched with mentor Angela Frigge, a then-member of La Salle’s business staff who was also involved in campus ministry. (Frigge now teaches religion at La Salle full-time.) Barksdale says Frigge’s mentorship was a huge help as he adjusted to starting high school online.

“Knowing I could go there with anything—with grades, questions about La Salle or my freshman year—it helped a lot,” Barksdale says. “It was a relief to know I had someone like Ms. Frigge in my corner to help whenever I needed it.”

Building Trust

Each adult at La Salle is assigned between two and four students per grade to mentor, and given time to meet with them several times per quarter during La Salle’s scheduled “flex blocks.” 

While mentors and students are required to meet at least once per month, they often check in more frequently than that. 

“It’s become part of my regular day—meeting with students throughout the day, checking in on them, seeing how they’re doing,” says Frigge, Barksdale’s mentor.

Over the course of four years, students and mentors spend dedicated time together inside and outside of the classroom. By building these bonds of trust, the school hopes that every student at La Salle will know there’s at least one adult they can go to for advice.

“Whether or not they realize all the other people here at La Salle that are in their corner, they know that there’s one person that they can go to about whatever,” Frigge says.

Four Years, Five Pillars

Founded in 1960, La Salle High School follows the Lasallian education tradition, aiming to provide students with a Catholic educational experience that enriches the mind, body and spirit. These educational principles come from the teachings of St. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, a 17th-century French priest who became the patron saint of teachers of youth.

La Salle’s mentor program embraces the school’s founding values, providing students with one-on-one guidance to help them grow within the five pillars of the Lasallian tradition—leadership, scholarship, faith, service and community—as they move through high school and plan for the future.

While each mentor-student relationship is shaped by student needs, each grade level has a suggested topic to guide the year of mentorship meetings, ultimately setting students up for success post-graduation. As the students progress through their four years, students move from preset goals to self-driven goals.

For ninth graders, the theme is getting acclimated to La Salle. In 10th grade, mentors help students explore their career interests, and the next year, they connect those career interests with study plans at prospective colleges.

As a senior, Barksdale is in the thick of the college application process—with Frigge providing support and guidance as he writes application essays and prepares to graduate from La Salle.

“This year, I’m focusing more on college and what I’m going to do with my life,” Barksdale says. “[Frigge’s] been helping me with that, getting ready to become a man and go out on my own.”

Mind, Body, Spirit

For Frigge, one of the best parts of the mentoring program is that it allows her to build relationships with students that last longer than the single year or semester that they’re in her classroom.

“Having the same group of students for all four years of their high school career really builds that trust and that relationship between the adults and the building and the students,” Frigge says. “The foundation of the mentorship is building that trust at an early level.”

Frigge says many students don’t realize the full benefit of the mentorship program until after they graduate high school. Alumni have expressed their gratitude for the program and for the assistance they received through the membership while in high school. 

Barksdale says Frigge’s mentorship has helped him develop both on an academic and a personal level. 

“It helped me find out who I am and what I’m here for,” Barksdale says.

He advises future students to enter the membership program prepared to work on more than academics.

“I would just say don’t go into it thinking it’s just another class or it’s just about grades,” Barksdale says. “I definitely would go to it and really listen to what the mentors have to say. They really do care about you, and they want you to make the most out of life.”