Women And Youth Supporting Each Other (WYSE) is a national organization that originally began at UCLA in 1992 to provide support in order to empower middle school girls to create change in their own communities. WYSE is a curriculum-based mentorship program which pairs UCLA students with 7th or 8th-grade mentees.
Throughout the year for 8 weeks per quarter, the mentor acts as a vital support system for girls from our partner schools at Mark Twain Middle School and Francisco Sepulveda Middle School. The LAUSD approved WYSE national curriculum includes topics geared towards improving self-esteem, body image, relationships, and critical thinking, which will inspire the students to become leaders and create positive change within their own communities. Each weekly site typically consists of icebreakers and one-on-one activities and discussion, followed by a group discussion of the week’s topic.
WYSE has accomplished a great deal in the past year, such as expanding campus influence, increasing and retaining the number of mentors to over 40, and coordinating our second field trip for the mentees to come to UCLA in order to learn more about higher education. In the fall of 2019, we held our first off-campus field trip to the California Science Center with our mentees and mentors from Mark Twain. WYSE hopes to continue our growth as a program and expand our influence so that we may be able to improve in serving our community.
UCLA WYSE 