A Look Back at Match Night
Match Night is PEAK’s most eagerly awaited tradition. On a September evening every year, each new PEAK mentor meets the scholar whom he or she will mentor for four years - and the scholar’s family. With this year’s event coming up next Thursday, we thought it was a good time to take a look back at this event over the years.
The night begins with the scholars and mentors in separate rooms, meeting the other families or other mentors and eagerly wondering about the person they will be matched with shortly. Will he or she like me? Will we get along? What will we talk about? What will the next four years bring?
The excitement builds as the mentors file into the back of the main room where scholars await. It’s time for the pairing announcements to begin! A mentor is introduced and called forward to the front of the room. Each scholar asks himself or herself, “Is this my mentor?” Each scholar is slowly introduced, adding personal details gradually, until a scholar smiles - who else could it be? As her name is called, the freshman scholar shyly walks forward and shakes hands with her new PEAK mentor. A picture is taken that will become a treasured keepsake. The process repeats until each scholar is paired, one to one.
The rest of the evening is a time for each mentor to get to know his or her scholar and the scholar’s family. They learn about each others’ histories, discover shared interests, shared struggles, and shared dreams. The scholar’s goals that he or she set for the first year of high school are reviewed together, and the scholars, mentors, and parents all formally commit to helping that young person meet those goals.
The support of this new commitment and new relationship helps each PEAK scholar make the journey from a shy freshman entering high school with average grades and test scores to a self-assured senior ready to take on the world, college acceptance in hand.
We can’t wait to introduce the new pairs next Thursday and see what this four year journey has in store for you!