Take a flight into the Study Overcome Achieve Reward Program (SOAR), and learn about the great things it does for the junior high students and their futures. SOAR is a program that helps students further their education. It’s a program that can give students the bright futures they want for themselves.
Dr. Kathleen O’Rourke and Patty Labriola started the SOAR Program in the fall of 2009. They saw so many kids with great work ethics but without the financial savings to go on to continue their educations.They initiated this program to help the kids achieve their post-secondary goals. The SOAR Program helps students with funding for college and with figuring out what they want to major in in college.
Each student has an in-school mentor and an out of school mentor. They personally select their in-school mentors, who are teachers, and their out of school mentors get assigned to them based off the students’ interests. The in-school mentors, along with being an everyday teacher, provide support during the school day and throughout the year. Out of school mentors discuss times where they have failed at something, but kept working until they achieved their goal. Out of school mentors also help the student figure what they want to do as they become adults and go off to college. They aren’t given a set topic to discuss with their students; they base it off of the students’ interests and goals.
Some current SOAR members even hope to mentor future students .
“Absolutely! Because they have given me the opportunity to learn and to get information from them, so I feel that I should do the same,” Taylor Massey said.
Along with having mentors, the students also have the opportunity to visit potential colleges they would like to attend. The students will not be able to go to the colleges this year because the senior students have already done so. But, when the students get to go to the colleges in the future they attend a lecture that informs them about what courses they can take. Also while there they take a tour of the college where they see the dorms, cafeteria and other school amenities.
“I have to admit… it’s a lot more work than I imagined, but it’s worth it,” Dr. O’Rourke said.
Her hard work has paid off; the program has helped fund each students’ first year of college. But, according to Dr. O’Rourke, the students are the most exciting part of the SOAR Program.
