WHEATLAND -- A program pairing high school seniors as mentors with incoming students has sliced freshman failure rates by more than half and has significantly decreased hazing.

Through the program, Wheatland High School seniors are trained in leadership and team building, then matched with incoming freshmen. The older students ease the sometimes difficult transition to high school socially and academically.

WHS Principal Maureen Ryff said freshman failure rates, measured by the numbers of students failing and classes being failed, have dropped by at least 50 percent since the program's inception two years ago.

Dropout rates at Wheatland have been running 6 percent to 8 percent a year, Ryff said. While that number may be a little lower than state and national averages, she said one dropout is too many. Students who have resources to be successful academically tend to stay in school.

'They don't drop out when they have good grades and credit,' Ryff said. 'They drop out when they don't. Generally, that's set by the end of their sophomore year.'

By that point, failures can seem so insurmountable that students may opt to leave school.

'Our goal is to get them into the junior year being successful,' Ryff said. 'Then, dropping out doesn't become an option.'

Senior Charlie Miller saw the mentorship program as a way he could help others. Plus, the activities seemed to tie in well with his career plans in elementary education.

Following leadership training at HR Camp near Esterbrook, Miller started the school year with three freshmen under his wing. He must check in regularly with each student and offers orientation to the high school, help with homework or guidance to the right resources, and some advice for navigating the social scene.

Miller remembers his own freshman year and the hazing that occurred. Most was harmless, such as seniors refusing freshmen entry to the commons or seats at good lunch tables. Just the same, it was intimidating and made life uncomfortable for a few months, he said. Couple that with a whole new struggle in the kind of academic work required, and times could be tough.

'If I'd have had an older person there to help me or just to talk to, I wouldn't have struggled so much,' Miller said.

Ryff has become concerned about freshman hazing and initiation, which can prove frustrating and even frightening for new students. By establishing connections among students before new freshmen start classes, the mentorship program has nearly eliminated those incidents.

'It's just gone. It's over,' Ryff said. 'The senior mentors are kind of looking out after these kids, and that's helping the peer group as a whole. The seniors are feeling responsible.'

Freshman year can also be tough when athletics take center stage at the school and in the community, Miller said. Getting new students involved with mentors has opened the door to other activities and clubs that are more inclined to give freshmen active roles.

'We're here to help,' Miller said of the mentors. 'All it takes is for you to ask. They learn that help is good. They want to keep more options open than closing them.'

That engagement is changing the environment at WHS, business and career sciences teacher Tracy de Ryk said. She's also the parent of a senior mentor.

'That sense of welcoming and being part of the school has been huge,' de Ryk said. 'It builds a sense of support, kind of a safety net, at the school.'

Senior mentor Anna Melcher said younger students seem more inclined to respond to upperclassmen than to teachers.

'It's a different voice,' senior mentor Jannell Patterson agreed. 'And we've been there.'

Like Miller, Melcher said the program help students socially. Freshmen have help navigating the maze of groups, clubs and activities open to them.

While the transition from middle to high school is critical in providing a base for success, Ryff said sophomores can slide downhill quickly. A team of teachers takes up some mentoring of sophomores, but students respond so well to peer mentors that the program will expand to have seniors mentor both freshmen and sophomores.