From Ninth Grade to Senior Year 

There’s something different about this school year for PS facilitator Heidi Hafermann at South High School. For the first time, the students she met when they walked through the doors as ninth graders are now seniors. She’s getting to see the full four-year arc of the Project Success curriculum with the same group of students. 

Last spring, when those students were still juniors, some of them laughed with Heidi about how “squirrely” they had been when they first arrived. Heidi has watched them grow since then, gathering new experiences and perspectives and becoming more self-assured along the way. 

At the same time, another class is just beginning that journey. 

At the end of last school year, Heidi asked South’s graduating seniors what advice they would give the ninth graders coming in behind them. She saved their responses, typed them up, and laminated them, then brought those words back to school this fall for her first workshop with the new ninth –grade class. 

Their advice covers everything from doing your work and getting involved to taking care of yourself and enjoying high school while it lasts. But Heidi noticed one idea coming up again and again: find your people. Build friendships. Surround yourself with people you can be yourself around. Know there are people there for you. 

In a way, Heidi gets to carry something from one class into the next. 

That kind of listening is part of how she approaches all of her workshops. During activities, students often write their responses to questions and reflection prompts on Post-itssticky notes or index cards. Students can take those responses with them, but if they don’t want them, Heidi asks if she can keep them. She reads what they’ve shared, noticing the jokes, ideas, and patterns that help her understand the students in front of her and shape future workshops. Project Success curriculum provides the structure, but knowing students year after year allows Heidi to keep responding to who they are and what they’re bringing into the room. 

And those relationships extend beyond workshops. Heidi sees students in the hallways, connects them with opportunities outside of the classroom, and gets to watch as something unexpected catches a student’s interest. She’s also quick to point out the people alongside her in that work: “Shout out to the support I get from my partner teachers too!” 

For Heidi, there’s something special about walking into South and knowing these students, and being known by them. “Those are my students at this point,” she said.