Glacier High's Ascent program prepares students for adulthood

A group of 19 Glacier High School students in a program called Ascent are climbing closer toward young adulthood and a goal to graduate.

The pilot program, which started in 2018, serves students who may be at risk of dropping out. The program aims to support students who may be struggling with grades, behavior or attendance — whether due to school- or home-related reasons ­— by setting aside a class period each day to focus on curriculum to develop social-emotional growth.

In the classroom, students learn about concepts such as goal-setting, planning, organizing, teamwork and self-care.

Students then put the concepts into practice through team-building and trust-building activities such as ropes and obstacle courses, retreats, trips to college campuses, and, recently, community service.

Ascent, which is funded through a two-year Montana Academy Foundation grant, is based on Montana Academy’s therapeutic approach within the framework of a public high school education. The school is tasked with how to make the biggest impact within the limited time frame of the school day as opposed to 24/7 supervised setting of boarding school. Glacier staff manage the program while the academy serves in a consulting capacity.

On Wednesday, a group of Ascent students walked over from the high school to Memorial Park located at the roundabout at the intersection of West Reserve Drive and Stillwater Road.

The students were going to spend the class period clearing out brush, pruning, planting and raking.

In preparation of the community service activity, students learned that the park was created in memory of Allison Fifield from one of her former teachers. Fifield was a 16-year-old Flathead High School student who died in 2005 after a dump truck failed to stop at the intersection and smashed into her car. That intersection was later turned into the roundabout.

“Remember the family we’re supporting in doing this, those are the important things to focus on,” said social worker Peter Carlson, who teaches the program with fellow social worker Sandy Lorenc.

“There are four main areas we work on with them that teenagers in general benefit from developing in — empathy, relationships, ethics and ‘planfulness,’” Lorenc said, explaining the latter term, “It’s related to goal-setting and planning a project like we’re working on out here. What were the problems we saw out here? What were the issues what needed to be worked on? What can we do about it?”

Carlson outlined some of the work to be done.

“We’ve got a little bit of work to do. I’ve got a bunch of plants in back of truck,” he said and had the group gather around a tree slated for removal. Beside the tree was the sapling that would replace it, its leaves shriveled and ready to fall from the cold weather.

“Remember it’s fall — trees don’t look good,” Carlson said.

“That’s not true,” said junior Kylie Holloway. “I saw a thing earlier that ‘fall shows us how beautiful it is to let things go.’”

Other students nodded or expressed appreciation of the quote.

Students then picked up gardening tools and got to work.

What junior Athena Storey enjoys about the program is having a space to connect with her peers after spending last year establishing those connections and building trust.

“I know people sometimes feel like they can’t talk to people and it’s kind of nice getting that group who you’re just comfortable talking to,” Storey said.

Storey said the class trips have helped the classmates grow as a group and the obstacle and ropes courses have been an exercise in trusting others.

“We had to help each other, not just do it by ourselves, everyone had to help,” Storey said. “You’re putting your trust into someone. It’s really nice to be able to do that.”

Part of establishing that foundation of trust meant making some changes to better support the needs of students. One of the changes was creating separate classes for the boys and girls to improve the classroom dynamic. When the class was coed, Carlson said he noticed it was a barrier to students talking openly or freely about some topics.

“I noticed a big barrier there and this program is about smashing those barriers,” he said.

Supporting each other and conflict resolution were other concepts Holloway highlighted about the program.

“We’ve been learning how to support others when they’re upset and they’re going through something. Sympathy and empathy is what we we’re working on,” Holloway said, setting two potted plants on a park bench. “We talked about what you can do when you have conflict with someone and we work through conflicts in the class, like if two girls have issues we talk about it in the class and help each other what to do.”

Both Holloway and Storey said they have benefited from the program.

“I’m definitely more confident in myself; yeah, this class has really helped me to be more open — try new things,” Storey said.

Holloway at first was a bit reticent about participating in Ascent when she was approached about it her freshman year. What convinced her to try it out?

“My mom,” Holloway said smiling. “She wanted me to take it. And I did. And I’m glad she made me. I’ve learned a lot from it.

“It really has helped a lot of people with talking more and getting more out there and becoming better friends to people,” she added.

Parent buy-in and involvement is an important part of Ascent. Glacier counselor Chris Weaks said the program isn’t solely focused on forming a student community, but also forming a parent community.

Dubbed “Parent University,” parents are invited to share a meal together one evening a month. During the parent night, speakers are brought in to talk about parenting topics, concerns, tips and tools.

While Weaks and Carlson said they have a solid group of parents who attend regularly, it’s been a challenge to get everyone to the school.

“I think the biggest barrier is to just get them in here [and] to believe that it’s going to be helpful in any way,” Carlson said, noting that one of the issues may be that some parents just aren’t comfortable in the school setting.

What does he think is valuable about attending the parent nights?

“Identifying with other parents how hard it is to raise a teenager ­— that is the most beneficial part of it,” Carlson said.

In tracking the program’s effectiveness Weaks said the school will look at student attendance, grades and graduation rates. The school will also look at maturity growth through a survey developed by the founders of Montana Academy called the Montana Adolescent Maturity Assessment. The hope is to see progress from the start to end of a school year.

“One of the biggest successes for the program is when we get teachers and parents and the rest of the administration at school all saying the same thing about students its amazing how well it works,” Carlson said.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.