Peer 4 Peers Active at Arrowhead High School

Peer 4 Peers is a national club available at Arrowhead High School. The Peer 4 Peers group meets every third Wednesday of the month in room 116 at North Campus, after school starting at 2:36pm. The intentions of this club include promoting students to live a healthy lifestyle by staying drug and alcohol free, helping students make relationships with those around them and increasing academic achievement.

Peer 4 Peers is made up of 20 students at Arrowhead High School along with four advisors: guidance counselors Thomas Stuber and Barbara Whyte, associate principal Debra Paradowski, and Adam Kindred.

With the help of training and advisers, students take action within the community around them.

Tori Kafkas, a member of Peer 4 Peers, said, “The [purpose of the] club is to create strong leaders throughout the school districts, to make this a better place for everybody.”

The club allows any student to contact Peer 4 Peers when needed.

Arrowhead High School students are able to sign up on a list in the office to schedule an appointment, during school hours, for a Peer 4 Peers member. It is for students feeling more comfortable getting help from students closer to their age, who will understand the pressures of high school more. The students are able to go to the peers as many times as they need, as long as they are schedule an appointment.

Each student who wants to join the club has to fill out an application. Whyte will send a copy of the application via email, and then the student will be interviewed by the Arrowhead High School counselors, in the guidance counselor rooms. The Peer 4 Peers students go through training. Arrowhead High School rents out Elm Brook church in Delafield for their summer training.

Students go through one year of training, starting junior year, and continue to receive training  through senior year. Club members learn how to interact and how to make a positive mark.

Ellie Bonk, a member of Peer 4 peers, said, “Since this is a national club, we often commute with other schools like Pewaukee, Waukesha, and more. We all get to train and learn strategies together that we have come up with.”

Bonk said, “The purpose of us training is so we can understand the way to get through to students, and how to help them make changes to their life when they come to us. We are here to console when students don’t feel comfortable talking with the guidance counselors, they have options for students their own age who understand the stress of high school.”

The training is to help Peer 4 Peers members know what to ask, say, and how to help.

Kafkas said, “I love Peer 4 Peers. It is such a good opportunity to take a leadership role and to help all of the people around me. It makes my day when people leave with a smile on their face.”

The club’s goals are to help anyone that comes looking for it.

“Peer 4 Peers is a way for kids to reach out and to get any needed help with the students, and it is to help to grow and strengthen each community,” said Bonk.