Stoughton High School senior Tommy McClain has a way of connecting with young learners in the classroom, where most mornings you can find him working with elementary students.
"I like being around kids, helping kids out," said McClain, who is planning to pursue a career in social work. He will be attending St. Cloud State University next year.
For McClain, it is part of a journey that began several years ago, when Todd Hipke, a Fox Prairie parent and then-coordinator of a service learning class at Stoughton High School, encouraged him to join the class.
"I liked it, and so I continue to do it," McClain said.
In the class, students alternated between instruction at Stoughton High School and working with students in Stoughton elementary schools. Some of the high schoolers, including McClain, went back and volunteered on their own time even after they had completed the class.
McClain has continued that volunteer work right through his senior year. This year, he regularly forgoes his study hall period to visit Fox Prairie and work with students, oftentimes to mentor one student. The pair read together, work on math problems and play games.
"He means the world to [that student]," said Becky Bell, a Fox Prairie Learning Strategist.
"(Tommy) is an excellent mentor, similar to a big brother."
Separate from McClain, students from Stoughton High School also regularly visit Fox Prairie to work with students through the current service learning class.
This semester, 18 SHS students will visit Fox more than two dozen times to act as mentors. Meanwhile, for the 2018-19 school year, SHS will offer two different service learning classes to students as one-semester electives: Service Leadership and Service Leader Mentorship. The former affords students an opportunity to acquire leadership skills and learn about civic responsibility, in part by acting as tutors and mentors at a Stoughton elementary school. In the latter, students will complete 100 hours of community service through focused field work that is guided partly by their interests and post-secondary plans.