Turning Tide Mentorship Program

Students who mentor students – That’s the vision that the UA Student Government Association (SGA) and Madeline Martin, the Vice President for External Affairs has for the Turning Tide mentorship program.

Turning Tide allows SGA members to mentor local high school freshmen. The program pilots in Spring 2022 with 35 members of SGA visiting Holt High School weekly.

Madeline Martin
Madeline Martin, SGA Vice President for External Affairs

Together, the UA and Holt High students will work through a 10-week curriculum designed to help them build relationships and connect to issues facing high school students. These issues include goal setting, time management, self-discovery, self-love, etc They’ll also focus on planning for the future and post high school steps. The goal of Turning Tide is to partner with high school students to encourage and expose them to higher education and other post-graduation options as early as possible. This program will work closely with the Center for Service and Leadership and serve as a high school supplement to the widely successful elementary school program, Al’s Pals.

During the pilot semester, Turning Tide will be limited to Holt High School and SGA members. “Our goal would be to open it up to work with 9th graders all over Tuscaloosa County Schools and to allow all UA students who are interested to participate as mentors,” says Madeline. Her hope is that by Fall 2022, the program will be expanded to more of the UA and TCS student bodies.

Madeline says that it was an influential mentor in high school who directed her to UA and helped her prepare effectively for the move to college.

“A lot of times we think students just need to be put in tutoring when they don’t perform well academically, but more often than not they need to be heard and seen by a peer. I’m thankful for the collaboration between offices in the Division of Student Life to help us launch this important and hopefully life-changing program.”