A group of Boys and Girls Club of El Dorado students graduated from the SMART Moves program on Wednesday and celebrated the accomplishment at the club with their peers and program mentors.
Students received t-shirts and certificates marking their completion of the program and several came forward to speak about what they learned, including avoiding drugs and alcohol, during the 10-week program.
Peer mentors from eXtreme Youth Programs as well as adult mentors led the SMART (Skills Mastery and Resilience Training) Moves program and taught the curriculum to the Kindergarten-4th graders.
SMART Moves, according to a SHARE Foundation press release, focuses on addressing "problems such as drug and alcohol use" and engages the students in "discussion and role-playing, practicing resilience and refusal skills, developing assertiveness, strengthening decision-making skills and analyzing media and peer influence."
Sophomores Ramya Miller, Demyah Charles and Kamora Lee, along with freshman Autumn Burton, served as peer mentors. Adult advisors were Steve Biernacki, Sara Coffman and John Coffman.
The mentors taught one-hour classes each Wednesday as part of the program.
Miller, one of the peer mentors, said that she feels the students learned important lessons from the SMART Moves curriculum and her fellow mentors.
"Teaching those kids was a lot of fun for everyone, including the kids. I feel like they've learned valuable lessons from the curriculum," Miller said.
Students received t-shirts and certificates to celebrate the completion of the SMART Moves program. (Matt Hutcheson/News-Times)