College Mentors for Kids is a mentoring program that pairs college students in one-one friendships with elementary school students. The children go to the campus each week for hour-long activities with their mentors. Through College Mentors for Kids, your child will learn about art, music, languages, people and cultures from around the world, and much more! Your child also will learn about the needs of the community, and how he/she can make a difference by helping others or helping the environment. The goal of College Mentors for Kids is to give your child a mentor who will help him or her develop an appreciation for education and culture and a desire to help others.
We call our mentors "big buddies" and the children "little buddies." College Mentors for Kids carefully interviews, selects, and trains qualified mentors to participate in College Mentors for Kids. Your daughter will be matched with a female college student mentor. Your son will be matched with a male or female college student mentor. College Mentors for Kids is a one-of-a-kind mentoring program because children and their mentors will always be in a group. This way, your child will get to know several college students and other children as part of a group called a "buddy family.
Each week at College Mentors for Kids, your child will participate in interactive, educational activity. Each activity begins with a nutritious snack and a physical activity or game to prepare the kids for their time on campus. After a bathroom break and a review of the rules, the Book of the Week is read aloud and the group discusses the College Question of the Week.
Through culture and diversity activities the little buddies learn about the talents and heritage of the different people who form the college community. Activities may include celebrating Cinco de Mayo with a student from Mexico, sitting in on an orchestra class, or learning a routine with a hip-hop dance group. These activities expand little buddies' worldview by exposing them to the languages, foods, visual and performing arts, and histories of groups different from themselves.
Children are transported home via an MCCSC school bus when the activities are completed for the day.