Boys & Girls Club Blog

June 3, 2024

The Boys & Girls Club of Oshkosh is excited to share that in spring we expanded our BE GREAT: Graduate teen mentoring program to Vel Phillips Middle School.  For almost five years, the Club has partnered with the Oshkosh Area School District to offer the program in our high schools, first at Oshkosh North, followed by Oshkosh West.  A BE GREAT: Graduate mentoring coordinator is onsite during school days to work with teens and middle schoolers one-on-one to stay on track with their grades, graduate high school on-time and create a plan to be college, career and community ready. In addition, students in the program are given a free membership to the Boys & Girls Club of Oshkosh where they have access to the Club’s facilities, programs and more.

Expanding the Club’s program into Vel Phillips Middle School allows us to reach more teens who may be struggling with their grades, or in other ways, that will make the transition to high school, and successfully graduating high school more difficult.

Our mentoring coordinators work with students to set them up for success. This includes:

• Creating weekly and semester goals and a plan for how to achieve them
• Having weekly check-ins and taking a look at grades
• Providing homework help
• Exploring career paths through college tours, business tours, and other field trips
• Aiding students in applying for scholarships
• Guiding students in the transition from middle school to high school by helping them understand credits, GPA, and the requirements needed to graduate high school
• Connecting students who need it, with additional tutoring help

The Club currently serves 80 teens between all three schools and is proud to have a 100% graduation rate.

With the school year at an end, Club staff are so proud to see how far their students have come. One young man dreamt of becoming a welder but was habitually absent from school and was on the verge of not graduating. Through the assistance of our onsite BE GREAT: Graduate mentoring sessions and diligent meeting times, he earned his way into Riverside, Oshkosh’s alternative education program. This allowed him to recover the credits he needed to graduate and he is now able to complete his school work while pursuing his welding dreams at Fox Valley Technical College. He is even projected to graduate early!

To learn more about the BE GREAT: Graduate mentoring program, please contact the Boys & Girls Club of Oshkosh at (920) 233-1414 or visit us online at bgcosh.org/be-great-graduate-program.

Thank you the Oshkosh Area School District for your partnership and to the Taco Bell Foundation, Theda & Tamblin Clark Smith Family Foundation, Oshkosh Area United Way and Walmart for helping make this program possible.