Ralston High School teacher academy students mentor elementary students | Ralston

“I used to not like little kids,” Homan said. “I just don’t vibe with them, but they’ve actually been like really fun to work with and they’re really funny people.”

RHS junior Alex Johnson said she has enjoyed getting to know her mentees the past couple of weeks in the program.

She said was not too intimidated by the prospect of having to mentor younger students.

“I kind of showed confidence and I kind of went in knowing that they’re going to listen to me,” Johnson said.

Myers said he was intimated on the first day of the program but has moved past that initial anxiety.

“It was more intimidating me for the first day, introducing myself and meeting them,” Myers said. “The next week it was kind of a lot easier to connect with all the students.”

All three students agreed that being a mentor has helped them to feel more prepared for their future careers as teachers.

The current program will run through the end of July and 4-H has already been approved to start a new mentoring round, starting in June and running through the next school year.

Dunn said the mentors have a curriculum to follow that is provided by 4-H to use for activities to promote the healthy lifestyle portion of the program, but they have freedom to choose how to execute that curriculum to the younger students.