BELLEVILLE, Illinois — He’s the associate principal of Belleville West High School, but one look inside his office and you’ll see his focus isn’t on grades nine through 12.
It’s all about Wolverines, Hawkeyes and Huskers.
It’s signs of loyalty to the Buckeyes, Boomers and Spartans.
More than 20 college pennants cover the walls of his office.
The last 9 years of his career have been focused on what happens after high school.
“My ultimate goal is to always try to encourage you to go to college,” said Dr. Richard Bass.
His very first day at Belleville West, Bass implemented the Mentor/Mentee Guide Right Program.
It pairs mentees (freshman/sophomores) with mentors (juniors and seniors).
“A lot of times, students don't want to hear from me. They want to hear from someone that is around their age. So, we do a lot of peer interaction. We have guest speakers come in and we always talk about higher education,” he said.
The program also focuses on what grades, test scores, and extracurriculars students need to achieve to get into college.
The group has grown from 25 to 150 students.
But Bass’ students don’t just talk about college, he makes sure they get to experience it.
Every Spring, kids in the program get to go out-of-town on a college tour.
“For a lot of kids, that's the first time they ever had the opportunity to go outside of Belleville,” Bass said.
Their first trip was to the University of Indiana where the university president spoke with them, they met with the football coach, and got to eat lunch at a training table.
Subsequent trips have been to The Ohio State University and University of Iowa.
They usually spend the night on or around campus.
“The ultimate goal is to encourage kids just to get a chance [to see] that this is what college is all about. And it’s your opportunity to say, ‘You can do this.’”
Unfortunately, the pandemic has canceled the college trips in 2020 and 2021.
Bass has made the best of the situation with virtual college tours but admits it’s not the same.
He was also very candid about distance learning being hard as an administrator.
“It's sad when you come into the building and no one is here,” he said.
Bass said 98% of the students in the program go on to college. He said the ones that do not, often go into the service or enroll in a trade school.
The college trips are funded by donations. If you’d like to help, reach out to Dr. Bass at rbass@bths201.org.
