ORANGEBURG COUNTY, S.C. — The Orangeburg County School District is looking to establish a mentoring program for its students. It's called the OC3 Mentoring Project.
“The mission of this is to do exactly what our strategic plan says. To discover the person, persons, and platforms of our students," said director of student services Hayward Jean, "Giving them the opportunity to find out who they are, why they exist, and then what are we gonna do about it and allow our schools to be a place where they can practice their greatness.”
The program is aimed at students who may have behavioral issues or who have been expelled. Students will receive guidance from community leaders recruited by the district.
“We’re picking the people. Every child is gonna be like our own children. We’re picking the people. That’s why we call it one child, one chance because we’re looking at kids specifically and identifying specific needs with specific students," said Jean.
The goal of the program is to help these students develop self-awareness of their behavior to have a better academic experience and learn how to effectively interact with others.
Mentors are required to check in with their students over the phone once a week, and meet in person once a month.
“There are so many other one child, one chance programs out there but they're bad. They’re recruiting our students for all the wrong reasons. We already have people out there taking advantage of our kids the wrong way so hopefully this is a chance to remedy that," said Jean.
The goal is to recruit mentors in September and begin mentoring in October.
For more information about the program, visit the district's website.