Seeing an opportunity to build community and support students across all grades, a group of Beaver seniors came together to create the Beaver Expanding Education Program (BEE Program). The goal of BEE is to provide academic assistance to students in grades 9 and 10 by partnering them with an upperclassmen mentor with expertise in any given subject. Whether it’s help with a project, a question about a school event, or general support for a student new to Beaver, BEE is designed to help by fostering cross-grade collaboration.
BEE founders Nayan Brainerd-Ghosh, Reid Sullivan, and Reya Schmidt know the importance of building community. As Nayan states, “when we were freshmen, it was during the pandemic, so there was a lack of community for various reasons. Fostering that sense of community throughout different grades can be really helpful.” BEE’s commitment to creating connections can be seen in how the program pairs students; underclassmen are paired with mentors not only based on the academic subject they need help with, but also each student’s interests outside of the classroom.
[BEE] is a way to get students out there and make a friend, to have someone to say hi to in the hallways while getting help academically.
-Reid Sullivan
If a 9th or 10th grade student is interested in meeting with a BEE mentor, the first step is filling out an interest form. The student team behind BEE will look at the application and find a mentor best-suited to the topics, interests, and availability of the underclassman applicant. The BEE team knows that no two partnerships will be the same, so mentors and mentees have freedom to select how they meet and how often. BEE will remain an option throughout the year as well; as Reid states, “when 9th graders go on and get harder work, like towards the end of the term, a program like BEE might be of more use.”
The process of creating BEE and sharing it with Beaver has been no easy task. “It’s very difficult to market something,” Reid says. “We’ve been getting better at it for sure. From just starting out to now, there have been a lot of things we’ve learned such as how to present and pitch something.” In addition to marketing, another surprise came to the BEE team when they opened applications for mentors. Currently, BEE has an abundance of mentors waiting to help, spanning over 30 subjects from music to modern languages.
I found it cool how many kids wanted to be mentors. A lot of us–seniors and some juniors–are really really busy right now, so it was heartwarming to see how many of us were willing to do this and help out so that freshmen and sophomores are better off.
-Nayan Brainerd-Ghosh
Looking ahead, the team behind BEE is eager to build upon the progress they have made already. Applications for underclassmen will remain open throughout the year and the team is determined to maintain a presence in the lives of younger Upper School students. “We wanted to create something that builds community in the school,” Reid says. “For me, having a mentor for not only school-related things–but also socially and academically–would have been really helpful when I was younger.”
You can find the application to join BEE here.