Mentors help Indigenous students AIME high
AIME mentees and mentors with co-ordinator Kyle Vander-Kuyp (front row 3rd from left)
Indigenous students are making giant leaps in their academic achievements with the help of Monash University mentors.
In the annual report released this week by the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME), Indigenous high school students who participated in the intensive leadership and educational program run by AIME at Monash University last year, progressed to their next year of schooling at rates closer to their non-Indigenous peers.
Figures from the report showed 100 per cent of Year 9 students who participated in the AIME program at Monash continued to Year 10. Further, 82.4 per cent of Year 10 students continued to Year 11, approaching the national non-Indigenous average for the year group (90.2 per cent).
The AIME program is a national initiative involving high schools and universities across the country. It was first introduced to schools in New South Wales and is now in its third year at Monash, matching university student volunteers with local Indigenous high school students in one-on-one mentoring relationships.
AIME CEO Jack Manning Bancroft said Monash University was an organisation truly committed to building Australia's future leaders.
“The annual report shows how our work together will see more Indigenous young people help lead the next generation,” Mr Manning Bancroft said.
On a national level, the report found school completion rates for AIME students to be significantly higher than the Indigenous completion rates across every year level. The Year 9 to 12 completion rate for AIME students was 62.7 per cent – double the national Indigenous average of 32.4 per cent and approaching the national non-Indigenous average of 75.2 per cent.
In 2011 Monash student volunteers mentored students from Dandenong High School, Endeavour Hills Secondary College, Genazzano FCJ College, Hampton Park Secondary College, Keysborough Secondary College, Methodist Ladies College, Patterson River Secondary College, Scotch College, Trinity Grammar School and Xavier College.