'The connection subsists’: North Carolina students connect with local seniors in pen pal program

Students at a North Carolina high school are breaking stereotypes, getting encouragement and gaining new texting buddies as part of a pen pal program with older adults.

The pen pal program, Senior2Senior, came to Davie County High School English teacher Ashley Snider as she thought about a previous project where students wrote letters to children called "Letters From Santa."

“I had students who previously had never really felt engaged in school get so excited about that project,” Snider told USA TODAY. “I really wanted a way to recreate that for spring semester.”

There’s a strong community within Davie County said Snider, including a Senior Services program full of active participants. She reached out to someone in the program and from there, her students were matched with pen pals aged 55 and up.

Students began exchanging letters with their pen pals in February, introducing themselves and talking about everything from career goals to their childhoods. Each student had one pen pal but some older adults had multiple students they corresponded with, Snider said.

This Monday, the students met their pen pals in person at the Davie County Senior Center, just a few minutes away from their high school.

“I didn't realize the depth and the meaning and the impact,” Snider said. “We got together with them on Monday and hearing from both sides how special this was, it just blew me away.”

And while Snider is proud of the program, she said the credit really goes to her students, who were vulnerable and open to making new connections with strangers.

Pen pal encouraged high school senior to pursue her goals

Brianna Covington and Tania Arellano, both 18, enjoyed the program and want to see it continue, they told USA TODAY Wednesday afternoon.

Covington said as soon as she heard about the project, she was in.

“My first letter, of course, had a lot of excitement in it,” she said. “I was really anxious to know when it was going to get set and we were going to be getting it back.”

Her pen pal, Allison Brown, is great, she said, and the pair have helped prove that generational stereotypes don’t always ring true. Covington’s past experiences had instilled beliefs in her that older people were cranky, she said, but Brown helped change that.

“And older people always talk about our generation and how we're so caught up in our phones and how they think we're just so rebellious and disrespectful,” she recalled.

She was nervous about meeting Brown.

“I wasn't sure if she was expecting me to look a certain way or sound a certain way but once I met her, all those thoughts went away,” Covington said. “It was all smiles and all positivity when I met her.”

Brown and Covington soon found that they had a lot in common. They are both older siblings and share some family traumas. They’ve also moved around a lot.

Calling it “mind-blowing,” Covington said she never thought she’d be matched with someone she could relate to and learn from. Brown even helped Covington deal with the uncomfortable feelings she harbored after relocating to the area.

“I'm from Forsyth County and that's way different from Davie County,” Covington said. “For the longest, I wasn't comfortable here. She kind of helped me with some of that.”

Pen pal program offers students encouragement as they prepare to make life-changing decisions

Arellano, another student in the class, wasn’t sure how to feel about the project when she first heard about it. The concept was completely new to her and while she thought it was creative, it also felt strange.

After she was paired with 62-year-old Anne, however, she quickly found out they had a penchant for travel in common. The pair connected over stories of their adventures and shared love for the mountains, and Arellano found that Anne had encouragement and advice to give.

“This is my first year at this high school,” she said. “All the friends that I'd made in my previous semester were pretty much gone. I had new classes and I was explaining to her."

On top of that, Arellano plays soccer and was feeling jittery about an upcoming competition. She was also preparing for a program that would allow her to learn more about engineering, which she plans to pursue in college.

Anne told her about her own experiences moving to new areas and encouraged Arellano to do her best. She’d definitely succeed, she told her.

“I was signing up for all these things I didn't know I was going to be able to do and whenever I got her support on this, I felt joy because someone understands me and someone is there for me,” she said.

Anne also encouraged Arellano to pursue her career goals as a woman in engineering.

“That is not as common but it's hopefully going to become common,” Arellano said. “She was impressed by that because she was telling me how back in her day … the women, they were more separated from technology.”

When Arellano sent Anne photos of a robot she was building, her pen pal showed off the pictures to the other seniors, all of whom were amazed by her work.

“She was just amazed by everything that I was doing,” Arellano said.

The 62-year-old has shown the high schooler that age is just a number, she said, and has even joined Instagram to keep up with Arellano.

“If you stay educated and stay true to yourself and you let your heart be itself, age will just not be a thing,” Arellano said. “She showed me in so many ways that just because she was 62 does not mean she feels like it. She felt like she was 20.”

'The connection subsists no matter what'

Snider said some students were nervous before meeting their pen pals in person on Monday, but things turned out better than ever.

“I had several students who were making some assumptions,” she said, adding that some students tried to imagine what their pen pals look like. “It was really fun to see them play around with those ideas and then to connect and see each other in person and realize … the connection subsists no matter what.”

Some of the senior citizens in the program even brought handmade gifts for the students, and students invited them to graduation.

Snider recalled reading some of the letters and being moved to tears.

“We as teachers don't often feel the level of acknowledgment or affirmation quite as quickly as this,” she said. “Sometimes we do what we do, and we have no idea whether or not it hits. For this to be hitting so many people, it's tremendous.”

Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY's NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Follow her on Twitter at @SaleenMartin or email her at sdmartin@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: North Carolina high schoolers, seniors inspire with pen pal program