Cyndie Shepard's Compass 2 Campus mentor program has recieved more than double the expected student registration as more than 400 Western students now prepare themselves for a new challenge: fifth graders.  

Western students enrolled in the Compass 2 Campus mentoring program will be the first to take the course and learn to tutor and mentor children in 10 elementary schools in Whatcom and Skagit Counties, program director Cyndie Shepard said.  

The participating elementary schools include Alderwood Elementary, Blaine, Central, Ten Mile Creek, Everson, Nooksack, Sumas, Mary Purcell, Washington  and Lucille Umbarger Elementary, according to information received in an e-mail from  Liz Sipes, Secretary to the Board of Trustees.

Shepard said as the program continues, it will follow the fifth graders as they progress through public school, where Western students will continue to be mentors until the younger students graduate high school.  

During the first three weeks of the course, Western students will learn how to relate to underrepresented students and use proper mentoring techniques, Shepard said.  Western students will then travel to participating schools to meet the fifth graders, she said.

Shepard said the mission of the program is to show fifth graders a path in life they may not have considered available to them before.  She said the program will inspire students from underrepresented backgrounds who may have never thought college was a possibility in their lives.  

“Many of these students have parents who never attended college,” Shepard said.  “If we encourage students at a young age to do well in school they will have higher aspirations.”

In the fifth week of the quarter, elementary students will be given a tour of Western’s campus.  Shepard said the children will be given an interest worksheet that will help them arrange tour groups so they can experience areas on campus that they might enjoy.

Shepard said Western students will visit their assigned elementary schools on a regular basis, which will let them talk to the children and offer support in the classroom.

Compass 2 Campus is the sister program of Phuture Phoenix, a mentoring program that Shepard and Ginny Riopelle co-founded seven years ago in Green Bay, Wis., for similar purposes.    
Assistant Director of Phuture Phoenix Stephanie Pabich said the reason Compass 2 Campus will work is due to the program’s use of college students. 

She said elementary students have a much greater interest in college students than a person who has been out of school for years.

“There’s a connection the students have to one another that is so much greater than that between children and adults,” Pabich said. 

Pabich said the reason the program starts with fifth graders is so the program can catch students before they become uninterested in school.

Cindy Stockwell, assistant superintendent of the Nooksack Valley School District, said the three Nooksack elementary schools that will participate in Compass 2 Campus—Everson, Sumas and Nooksack Elementary—have participated in mentoring programs before; such as Big Brothers Big Sisters.  She said, however, this is the first program connecting their elementary students with college students. 

“This will be an excellent opportunity for these children to find role models,” Stockwell said. 

Shepard said these schools were selected by the superintendents of the school districts because they are supported by the Title 1 grant program. 

The Title 1 grant program is controlled by the U.S. Department of Education and provides financial assistance to more than 50,000 public schools in the country in order to ensure students are academically successful.

Stephanie Salzman, Dean of the Woodring College of Education, helped select the schools districts that would be involved with the program. 

“[Western] has a long history of working with children at various schools around the area,” Salzman said.  “This program will be another great add-on to Western’s community ties.” 

Salzman said the program will have a large amount of students enrolled in majors outside of the Woodring College of Education. 

Shepard said she wanted more than one kind of major involved when she was developing the program. She said allowing students from all majors to participate will help diversify the children’s experience with the program. 

“[Western] students really are a big contributor to this community,” Shepard said.  “Their involvement is incredible and I know they will make a difference.” 

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