A mentorship program is helping newcomer students at Winkler's Northlands Parkway Collegiate (NPC) feel more at ease alongside their new peers and new surroundings.

The NPC initiative is in partnership with Regional Connection's' SWIS program, or 'Settlement Workers in Schools Program.' SWIS worker, Aubrey Krahn says there are currently nine NPC student mentors and four mentees.
    
"The mentors are former newcomers to the area, so they know how they felt when they came to the community, and so they were very happy to step forward...This is our first high school we've done it with and it's been working really well, and it's been a big success so far."

The mentors help the mentees to familiarize with the school and socialize with them, and then to make the connections, added SWIS worker Tobey Lau. "We have a lunch program with all the mentors and mentees, they socialize and gather every week." 

Grade 11 student and mentor, Dasha Kipyachova moved to Canada from Kazakhstan when she was four years old, and until last year she attended school in Morden.

"My friend actually told me about the program, and I heard that it was to help out people that just moved to Canada and so I decided to join. I used to go to Morden School, but I moved to NPC just last year and it was a little bit of a difficult switch because they're so close together, but I didn't have any friends in Winkler, so just like making like new friends here was difficult, So I like I'm happy to help out with the people that also just moved here." 

Kipyachova says it feels good to give back to the community, and she's happy to do it. "I want to be a teacher later on in my life, so it's like good that I can start now with helping out students instead of in 5 years when I become a teacher."