Pete Mandel, a Dimond counselor, teaches a community involvement class for Dimond students in search of elective credits.

Mandel said, “I love it. The class has been going for 12, maybe 11 years. I think it’s a great partnership between the two schools. Helping those kids over there at Chinook has brought out qualities that the students didn’t even know they have.”

Shayla Agli, a Dimond junior said, “I love the class, it’s my favorite. I’m genuinely kind of glad I started taking the class.”

Agli said, “I feel like the class has just made me happier in general. I couldn’t recommend it enough.”

Alina Starks, a junior at Dimond, said, “I enjoy the class actually, all the kids are super nice and funny. The class overall has made me more patient and open minded.”

Starks said,“The class is a great opportunity and people should take it if given the chance, they will not regret it.”

Everyone knows how kids can be sometimes. 

Mandel had this to say: “Having all those kids in your face needing something from you and talking to you and needing something from you. For them it’s almost like having another adult in the room. What’s cool about it is that it’s been around for so long so you have a lot of students from Chinook who come to Dimond and they come full circle and become a tutor at Chinook.

“Some students have also decided to become teachers because of the program. So many kids decide that because it’s repeatable for credit to take it two times, three times, four times, five times, I’ve had somebody do it six maybe seven times,” Mandel said.

Some students may have busy schedules and may not have time for an elective. 

“Enrollment after school is an option since they’re open until 3:30 and right now we have about 14 students going over there just in case someone needs some extra help,” Mandel said.

“I think sometimes you encounter some difficult situations of being a helper, sometimes people just don’t have the skills or the desire to do it but they go over there and they decide they don’t want to do it so sometimes they skip class.

“I know that sometimes they’ll have to be confronted with some difficult topics and sometimes they’ll hear stuff from kids that they’ll have to report and sometimes that could be sad to see or hear,” he said.