All teachers at The Heights are called upon to be mentors to students. The role of mentoring at the middle school level permeates all of the work of a faculty member. Every faculty member strives to teach students on a level that is both intellectual and personally developmental. Mentoring takes on special meaning given how formative the middle school years are for boys and how impressionable students are at this age. The guided growth of the student relies on the interpersonal relationship a faculty member establishes with him and often with his family.Developing these relationships with both parents and students is a main priority and is a focus for our collective work at The Heights.

Establishing a relationship with all middle school students that encourages trust
and dialogue about their intellectual, personal, social, and spiritual development is
a fundamental goal of a Heights teacher. In an effort to be of service to families,
establishing a similarly meaningful relationship with a student’s parents for the
sake of assisting them as they care for their son’s development is also an essential
part of the mission of The Heights.

As a way of caring about each student’s individual needs, an approach embodying
“cura personalis” (Latin for “care of the whole person”) is the focus of a mentor’s
work at The Heights. At the heart of this mentoring is a teacher’s central belief that
at every point in the school day the most important person to care for should be the
student present to him at that moment.

While every teacher holds the role of acting as a mentor to his students, a special
mentor is designated for each student as an official “advisor”.  Advisors are
specifically designated teachers who act as a contact point regarding a boy’s devel-
opmental needs. To this end, students meet with their advisors on a regular basis
and parents are asked to inform their son’s advisor of his developmental needs.
Despite an advisor’s officially designated role, an advisor is just one of many
faculty members at The Heights who provide opportunities for personal forma-
tion and growth.