Stepping up our services for PEAK scholars

PEAK juniors' and seniors’ grades were mostly “As” and “Bs” the first quarter - a remarkable achievement coming off this challenging pandemic year. Stepped-up services are helping these kids really step up.

Holy Trinity is now offering PEAK scholars academic advisers for each of their classes; every grade has one adviser to help guide students in their choices.

This lets students know what teachers to go to for help, and where to focus their time. “Holy Trinity is coaching students on how to take advantage of program offerings and teachers’ available time,” said Katherine Rush, PEAK executive director. “It gives our scholars another layer of needed support to learn how to get the academic assistance they might need.”

To ensure our PEAK scholars are supported during this challenging time, PEAK is also requiring many to see an in-school therapist provided by United Stand to Holy Trinity. In addition to having a convenient, on-site mental-health practitioner who understands the PEAK program and the Holy Trinity environment, the in-school therapy normalizes discussions about their issues and concerns and helps give scholars the tools they need to tackle those issues.

A Gallup poll of parents at the end of the 2019-20 school year showed that three in 10 (29%) said their child was “already experiencing harm to their emotional or mental health because of social distancing and closures.” Another 14% said they expected that further social distancing and remote learning would hurt their children’s mental health.

Students across the country have suffered traumatic effects of the pandemic’s quarantines and remote learning, personally and academically; in addition to increased anxiety and depression among all students nation-wide, many kids logged “Ds” and “Fs” last year while freshman are especially struggling with executive-function skills.

To boost those skills among PEAK freshman, Holy Trinity Language Department Chair and PEAK Academic Advisor Amilcar Morales is working intensely with them. He helps freshman learn how to advocate for themselves and how to pursue agendas such as daily study.

PEAK’s Knowles Tutoring Program is another new offering for scholars this year; engineers from the Knowles Corporation spend an hour each week tutoring students in math and science to help them improve and amplify their performance in subjects that can often be daunting.

These combined services are proving not just an excellent safety net for the scholars but also a significant boost after all the remote learning and social distancing students have experienced.