A PUBLIC SERVICE MESSAGE

are reluctant at fi rst, then they develop a sense of belonging and don’t want to transition out of the program,” Dilwith said, “So we keep them! Our success

Linell Dilwith,Principal of Stevenson Middle School, hand-picked counselor Christian Ellis (left) and literacy specialist Shawn Roldan (right) because of their 110% commitment to their students.

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT CONNECTING FOR SUCCESS, visit HawaiiCommunityFoundation.org.

Making the Grade:Middle schools Connecting for Success

AB UT

Of Hawai‘i’s 37,000 middle

school students this year, over 6,000 will not graduate from high school on time without intervention.

DID Y OU K NOW ?

� PHILANTHROPY: IT’S ALL

reaching 900 at-risk students each year with the tools needed to succeed.

“We catch them and make sure they stay on track,” said Stevenson Middle School principal Linell Dilwith, ex-plaining they target students whose behavior, attendance, and grades wave a red fl ag. Stevenson deploys a tri-level approach: a high-risk needs counselor works with stu-dents on emotional and coping strategies; a literacy specialist helps students boost reading skills; and community volunteer mentors connect with them out in the community.

It works. “The students

iddle school is hard. Kids fall behind, lose focus, lose their connection to school and the

community. When HCF saw the data on at-risk middle school students — realizing that the single best indicator of high school graduation is the suc-cessful, on-time completion of 9th grade — they did something about it. With the generous support of fi fteen local business and foundation funders, HCF’s Connecting for Success program puts resources in ten public and charter middle schools and fi ve nonprofi t community partners,

M

In sixth grade, she was struggling fi ghting … always in trouble. Now she’s blossomed. I can see her confi dence, her determination.

story students go on to become role models for our 6th and 7th graders.”

Three years into the pro-gram, Dilwith refl ects on one eighth grader. “In 6th grade, she was in fi ghts, struggling with peer issues, always in trouble. We focused on social, coping, and organizational skills. She set goals for herself, refl ected on who she wants to be. Now, she’s blossomed. Last week I saw her in tears and thought ‘uh-oh, what happened?’ Turns out she’d struggled in math class and walked herself to the counselor to get help. ‘I’m all good now,’ she told me. I could see her confi dence, her determi-nation. I know now she’s going to be okay.”