Oyler mentoring program survives COVID, comes back strong
Operating out of Cincinnati Public Schools’ Oyler School in Lower Price Hill, the Al Hampton Mentoring Program run by Kim Kemen, a 25-year teaching veteran, serves first through fourth graders.
Students are paired with a mentor from the community, who meets with the students in 30-minute sessions. The sessions are structured academically and their purpose is to help students thrive in an academic setting with the help of a mentor. Mentors can choose to sign up for just one 30-minute session, or they can take on multiple and stay for an hour or more a day. The program is flexible and allows mentors to work to set their own schedule, within the program’s operational hours.
Mentors are paired with one student and, ideally, will work with that same student for a year or two, ensuring a smooth transition each year. Through the program, Oyler has seen students not only show academic improvement, but also an improvement in behavior and attendance.
“Many students thrive on 1:1 attention,” says Kemen.
The program, like much of society, struggled when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020. But Oyler School managed to keep the program going, continuing in a virtual format. While many had doubts at first, the program was able to thrive and continue strong.
This past year was the first time since the beginning of the pandemic that the mentoring program is back in person. The program has had significant turnover since returning in person, though. Many older mentors were not comfortable returning to the building, so the program is always looking for new mentors. There are no prerequisites, but the school does conduct some training on site.
While Kemen has seen other schools run similar programs, none are quite the same as Oyler’s, she says. “There’s nothing quite at the magnitude as Oyler,” she says. “I have tried to guide and train mentors at other schools, but there isn’t a ton of room at most schools.”
Oyler’s program operates out of the Hampton Mentoring Room and boasts over 300 mentors total.
