WBZ Cares: Big Brothers Big Sisters Helps Students Think Of Life After Graduation
BOSTON (CBS) - Each month, WBZ Cares highlights a worthy non-profit organization, and tells the story of what that organization does for the community.
This month's organizations are "Big Brothers Big Sisters of Massachusetts Bay," which matches children from ages 6 to 14 with volunteer mentors, and The Big Brother Big Sister Foundation, which acts as the fundraising branch.
Besides matching children with mentors and fundraising, BBBS also works to connect high school students with older individuals enrolled in higher education or out in the workforce through several programs.
Over at the Boston Green Academy, a charter school in Brighton, freshmen students are paired with a mentor through the agency's mentor 2.0 program.
"They write to each other once a week, and they see each other once a month," said Liz Wolf, who runs the program and teaches a course at the school.
She says that the program aims at helping students to start thinking about life beyond high school.
"During the class, we talk about skills they can use to succeed in high school and start thinking about college," she said.
The mentors are all college graduates who are out in the working world.
"A lot of students don't have access to someone who is going to help them think about the college process," she said.
"So the student who is interested in opening their own business is matched with someone who is in business, giving them someone to look up to and find out how they got there."
BBBS staffers also bring 40 students to local college campuses to expose them to college life.
Nora Leary, Vice President of Services for BBBS says that in past on-campus visits, the students have participated in science labs and scavenger hunts.
There is also on-site workplace mentoring.
Over in Quincy, employees from Boston Financial Data Services, work with students from the middle schools.
"They do a combination of structured group activities and also just able to spend time one-on-one," Leary said.
She says the best part of her job is seeing the incredible bonds that are forged between Bigs and Littles.
"Many of these relationships last a lifetime. We might match a kid when they are eight years old and they're still seeing their Big Brother when they are 38 and they have their own kids," she said.
"That just really says a lot about the people in this area that they would step up in that way."
For more information about "Big Brother Big Sister Foundation" visit http://www.bbbsfoundation.org/or the WBZ Cares section on CBSBoston.com website during the month of January.
